Around 500 outstation students from the NIT, Srinagar, on Wednesday landed in Delhi to press for being shifted out of the valley to any other institute, citing threat to their lives.
A delegation of students met top officials of HRD ministry for about an hour while rest of the students agitated at Jantar Mantar. Talking to Deccan Herald, the students said the latest incident of police caning on the campus was a culmination of the series of “persecutions” that the NIT students faced at the hands of “Kashmiri students” for the last many years.
“We will not go back from here until Ministry shifts us from Srinagar to any other NIT in the country. We are not safe at all. Government must understand our concern,” one of the students said, refusing to disclose his name.
Another student showed several messages posted on twitter recently in which they were threatened with death if they came out of the campus. In one such tweet threatening to kill an outstation student, one Sayed Rouhan Mubarik had even tagged HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
“The Kashmiri students with the help of locals have been persecuting outstation students for many years but no one ever comes to know because the institute blacks it out. Tension pervades the campus. You ask any alumni, they will tell you,” a student said.
“The director of the institute does not have any say as the faculty and staff are Kashmiri.