19 students hurt in police action

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 11

Tension gripped Government Gandhi Memorial (GGM) Science College here on Monday after 19 students received injuries in a police lathicharge following a protest over the alleged raising of anti-national slogans. The slogans were raised by a few miscreants among stranded Kashmiri passengers who had gathered for registration process at the college for transportation to the Valley.

The passengers have been staying here since the last week as the Jammu-Srinagar national highway has been closed due to heavy snowfall and landslides at multiple places.

Trouble erupted when the passengers were holding a protest against the administration and some miscreants among them started raising anti-national slogans. This irritated the students who confronted the miscreants. Soon the passengers and students were engaged in a scuffle. This forced the police to intervene.

Some of the stranded passengers alleged that they were pelted with stones.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jammu, Tejinder Singh said, “There is a building in the backyard of the college wherein the registration was being done for the stranded passengers for sending them back to their respective destinations. On Monday also, a large number of stranded passengers arrived at the venue to register themselves for transportation to Kashmir.”

“After some time, the stranded passengers started moving to the Canal Road market and demanded immediate airlifting. A few of them raised anti-national slogans which led to a scuffle between them and college students,” he said, adding that the situation was under control and the stranded passengers were being evicted from the building.