Fear psychosis grips over 1,500 non-Kashmiri students at NIT

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 2

Fear psychosis has gripped more than 1,500 non-Kashmiri engineering students at National Institute of Technology (NIT) following a clash between two groups of students over defeat of the Indian cricket team against West Indies in the World Cup T-20 semi-finals on Thursday.

Although the CRPF has been deployed on the NIT campus, non-local students are allegedly facing life threats through “social media” and “phone calls” as some “outsiders” are bent upon “teaching a lesson” to the students who dared to oppose those who were mercilessly beating them for not celebrating the victory of West Indies against the Indian team.

The non-local students alleged they were asked to vacate their hostels amid bad weather. They were also being threatened with dire consequences for “hoisting the Tricolour” inside the campus.

“We were mercilessly beaten up by security guards while local people as well as students from Kashmir University pelted the students with stones who opposed to join Kashmiri students in celebrating Indian team’s defeat. An attempt is being made to force non-Kashmiri students to leave the Kashmir valley on the pattern of exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Now, a curfew-like situation prevails on the campus,” a second-year student of BTech told The Tribune over phone from Hazartbal late this evening.

A first-year student alleged, “When we objected to anti-India slogans on Thursday night, security guards beat up some local students. In the morning, when non-local students came to know about the incident, they held a demonstration outside the Director office. A large number of outsiders, mostly from Kashmir University, at the behest of local faculty members, entered the complex and entered into a scuffle with us. They hoisted the Pakistan flags and roughed up non-local students who were holding national the Tricolour.”

The student alleged that the NIT authorities called the police which resorted to using tear-gas and lathicharge on non-locals. “Many non-local students received injuries in lathicharge,” the student alleged.

“We are being threatened of dire consequences. Besides, the authorities have also warned that they will suspend and rusticate all non-local students who were part of protest. However, they are silent on the entry of outsiders into the campus,” they alleged.

“We appeal to the state and Central governments to look into the issue and initiate strict action against those who disrupted peace on the campus and harassed non-local students,” they said.