The Aligarh Muslim University administration has issued a show-cause notice to four students, including three Kashmiri PhD scholars, for staging a protest on the campus against the government clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evening.
University spokesperson Shafey Kidwai said, “A show-cause notice has been issued to Majid Butt, Sajjad Dar, Shafat Maqbool, and Mohd. Khalid for holding a protest on campus without permission.” Mr. Khalid, a postgraduate student, is not a Kashmiri.
Prof. Kidwai said the administration had also asked them to explain the slogans raised during the protest. AMU has around 1,000 Kashmiri students.
According to local sources, on Thursday, about 50-odd students peacefully marched to the university gates with placards asking for the lifting of communication blockade and easing of restrictions on travel in Kashmir.
‘Undeclared emergency’
Shakeel, a student of law faculty from Anantnag, said, “The aim of the protest was to make people outside the State aware of what their fellow citizens are going through, particularly when a large section of the media is not presenting the true picture. I have not been able to contact my parents for the last one month. It is a kind of undeclared ‘emergency’ in the Valley,” he alleged.
He asked why such stringent curfew-like conditions are being imposed on the citizens when the government was repeatedly saying that things are normal.
He maintained Article 370 was the “bond” between India and Kashmir and its abrogation has “alienated” even those who believe in peaceful dialogue.
Another student, Saif, who left the Valley on August 16, said his father was a government servant. “I approached the local DSP. He allowed me to make a brief call to a friend in Aligarh. He booked my ticket from Srinagar to Delhi and sent me the PNR number. On its basis, I got the boarding pass. When I left, the curfew-like situation was worst for those in need of serious medical care,” he said.
Mr. Saif said peaceful protest on campus was their democratic right even if permission was not granted.
(Names of students quoted have been changed on request)
