Students protest movement reaches Srinagar

The pan-India students protest movement reached Kashmir on Tuesday as students of Islamia College of Science and Commerce, here, held a rally to express their solidarity with their counterparts in Jamia Milla University Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University.

Reports said dozens of students had assembled inside the College campus in the volatile Hawal area of the old city at around 11 am. As they tried to march outside, police swung into action and fired tear gas shells to disperse them.

Eyewitnesses said two scribes covering the protest rally were beaten up by the police. “I was taking videos and clicking pictures of the protest when all of a sudden police intercepted me. After snatching my phone, the policemen hurled choicest abuses on me and also beat me up,” Azaan Javaid, a freelance journalist told DH.

However, a police official denied that any journalist was beaten. “Some youth were clicking videos and pics and we told them to leave the area. Beyond that nothing happened,” he said.

A protesting student said the march was organised to express solidarity with their counterparts in Delhi and Aligarh, who were allegedly assaulted by the police during demonstrations against Citizen Amendment Act (CAA).

“Being Kashmiris, we are used to police highhandedness. However, the way students in Jamia Milla Delhi were beaten up by the police is something we are shocked. It seems the incumbent regime in Delhi wants to throttle the dissent voices,” Faiq Ahmad, a student told DH.

His views were echoed by another female student from Kashmir University. “Since August 5, when through a unilateral decision J&K’s special status under Article 370 was scrapped, an undeclared emergency has been imposed in Kashmir. From gagging internet to putting political leaders in jails, the BJP government has tried every trick to subdue the Kashmiri population,” she said.

“However, now the more or less same things are being repeated in other parts of the country and student community have realised the dangers of these undemocratic steps and they are on roads. Kashmiri students will be part of all this movement, though we know police and other forces will leave no stone unturned to stop us,” the student added.