Srinagar, Mar 7: Days after 67 students were suspended at Swami Vivekanand University Meerut for celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in a cricket match on March 2, around 16 more Kashmiri students studying at Sharda University Noida have been expelled from hostel.
A group of students from the university told Greater Kashmir that they were expelled from hostel a day after the Meerut incident, although they didn’t even watch the match.
“As our exams were scheduled for the next day, so according to the norm television was off and even sports channels were blocked,” said Obaid Wani, a B.Tech student.
“In a separate hostel, Kashmiris had expressed happiness amongst themselves after the match and nothing beyond that,” the students said.
On March 4, some local students of Sharda University had posted status on their Facebook wall that read: ‘Kashmiris were expelled from Meerut, when will it happen in Sharda?’
“The status generated likes and responses,” said Obaid. “At 9 PM some people called us out of our rooms. There we were confronted by a highly charged crowd of around 3000 local students.”
The local students accused Kashmiris of being anti-India and pro-Pakistan. Sensing trouble, the panicked students called their senior Kashmiri students from adjacent hostel. “As our seniors came, these locals started to pelt stones on us, injuring three of our classmates namely Haris, Muhammed Yawar and Sheikh Usman,” said Asif Javid, another Kashmiri student.
“The management called the police and asked all Kashmiri students to go inside the seniors’ hostel.”
The students alleged that despite being beaten, the management didn’t take any action against the locals. “Instead we were expelled from the hostel without assigning any reason,” said Javid. “The second day we were asked to take out our luggage and were handed an expulsion letter.”
The students went to Vice-Chancellor’s office to inquire about the matter but instead were asked to submit a written apology letter individually and deposit penalty of Rs 25,000 each. “We refused to give apology as we are innocent,” said Obaid. “We didn’t do anything.”
When asked, an official at the university claimed that the issue was of minor nature. “Nothing serious happened. It was small tussle that was amicably solved,” said the official. “We don’t believe in differentiating people on the basis of State identity.” The official avoided the question regarding imposition of penalty and demand of apology letter from the students. “Now everything is fine,” he said
