New Delhi: The families of seven Kashmiri students, who were booked under anti-terror law for allegedly shouting pro-Pakistan slogans after India’s loss to Australia in the finals of the recently concluded cricket World Cup, have appealed to the authorities to drop the charges against them.
Speaking with The Wire, Syed Mohammad Qasim Bukhari, father of one of the accused students said that his son was not involved in any criminal activity in the past, “I have toiled hard for his education. What has happened is unfortunate but I refuse to believe that he was involved in any anti-national activity.”
Qasim’s son is a fourth semester student of Bachelors in Veterinary Science at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology where, on November 19, Kashmiri students allegedly celebrated after India lost to Australia in the finals. The family lives in north Kashmir’s Baramulla.
He said that the authorities should drop the charges against his son and other students so that they can continue their education, “The government should not put the careers of students at stake. If they have committed any wrong, I apologise on their behalf and appeal the authorities to set him free,” he said.
According to a police complaint, the celebrations were allegedly reported from one of the two undergraduate hostels of the university. The complainant, Sachin Bains, a student from Punjab, stated that there was purported sloganeering inside the hostel, where some local students stay, and he was allegedly abused and threatened by Kashmiri students purportedly over rooting for India.
Following the complaint, a First Information Report was filed by Ganderbal police station under Section 13 ( advocating, abetting or inciting any unlawful activity) of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA) and Sections 505 (inciting communal violence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) in connection with the incident and seven Kashmiri students named in the complain were arrested under anti-terror law among other charges.
A court in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal has sent the seven suspects to police remand till November 30, officials said.
A family member of a second student, who didn’t want to be named, also urged the authorities to drop the anti-terror charges against their kin, “Even if he has committed a wrong, charging him for terrorism is injustice. His career will be ruined. I beg the authorities to give him a second chance,” the family member said.
According to officials at the university, three among those named in the FIR are orphans, “One of the students, Mohsin Farooq, returned from Thailand recently where he was sent on a three-month research trip for his exceptional academic achievements,” the official said.
Advocate Shafeeq Bhat, who represents one of the accused students, said that they are preparing a legal defence, “They (students) are all nationalists like other students at the college. None of them has been indicted in any crime and most of them belong to economically backward sections of society,” he said.
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