Pulwama attack aftermath: Now Kashmiri students being penalized for staying away from class rooms
Srinagar: There seems to be no end to the miseries of the students studying in colleges and Universities located in outside states.
Now, the students who fled to Valley in wake of an attack on them after the CRPF convoy attack in Pulwama on February 14, are fined for remaining absent from the institutions.
As the students resumed their classes in their respective institutions, the college administration in Uttarakhand have asked the Valley students to pay fine for remaining absent from the colleges.
Earlier, the students had arrived back in Valley after facing harassment and intimidations from local mob for allegedly posting anti national posts on social media.
“That time we were running for safety to avoid attacks in our colleges. The college authorities were not in position to control the mob and advised us to return to the Valley,” a group of aggrieved students said.
The three colleges in Uttarakhand have asked the students to pay the fine of Rs 4000 to Rs 5000.
“They have included our names in shortage cases and have penalized us for it,” the students said and termed it as harassment by the colleges.
In wake of this, the J&K students association has submitted their grievance to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and sought his personal intervention to get the issue resolved.
“We are hopeful that the CM office will intervene into the matter and students are excluded from the list of shortage cases,” the students said.
Pertinently, the students and their parents were reluctant to send back the students to the colleges outside state post Pulwama incident. The parents had apprehensions of attacks on the students as several videos had surfaced on social media showing Kashmiri students beaten and were threatened to vacate their rented accommodations.
In wake of this, the state administration had to write to Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure that no Kashmiri student faces any harassment after they resume the classes in their colleges.
“But now we are facing another type of harassment by college authorities who are forcing us to pay the fine for returning to the Valley to save our lives,” the students said.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan didn’t respond to calls from this newspaper.
KV Correspondent
