PG owners in Jalandhar ask Kashmiri students to leave

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 18

With stepped-up verification of Jammu and Kashmir students after the arrests of three J&K students from a local institute, panicked paying guest (PG) accommodation owners have now begun asking J&K students to vacate their premises.

The police are also seeking intimation and details of all Kashmiri students proceeding or coming back from leave. At some of the institutions, students are informing the area SHO before heading for a leave.

Many Kashmiri students have already begun leaving the state amid apprehensions of “arrest”. While at least 40 students of the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology alone have proceeded on a leave, other institutes also report a similar spate.

Till date, various departments have sought the students’ data. At the state level, a form issued by the DGP titled “Other students database” a few days after the arrests sought data of students (name, DoB, gender, father’s name, address, contact, Aadhaar detail, date of admission, photograph, etc). Another form released by the Sanjh Kendra for student verification is titled “Stranger verification (resident of other district/state)”. Separately, in Jalandhar, data has been sought by the CIA, Commissioner of Police and rural police after the arrests.

Manhar Arora, MD, St. Soldier Educational Society said, “More than 40 to 50 students of our institute have been asked by their respective PG accommodation owners to leave after the data was sought by the police recently. Many students were also panicked and wanted to leave. But we have started holding counselling of students.”

Manbir Singh, MD, CT Group of Institutions, said, “At least 40 students have proceeded on leave. Students submitted applications, but before we could grant them leave they left. Intimations of all these students are being given to the police.”

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, “We are treading carefully and only students with confirmed terror links are being arrested. So a panic of this kind with PG accommodation owner is uncalled for. Kashmiri students are welcome in the state and there are no orders of any kind on their separate verification.”

Pupil held in Pulwama, brought to Punjab

• After previous arrests of four students, the Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested another student, Danish Rehman Sufi, from Noorpura in Pulwama on Wednesday. The student, brought to Jalandhar on Thursday, has been remanded in five-day police custody.
• A student of Universal College at Lalru in Dera Bassi, Danish is also a native of Pulwama like student Sohail Ahmed Bhatt, who was arrested on October 11. With this, the total number of Kashmiri students arrested under the case has reached five.