After an Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) scholar-turned-Militant was killed in a gunfight on October 11, Kashmiri students studying there have been receiving backlash.
Suspension order and FIRs were lodged against at least nine students who were accused of ‘sloganeering and performing funeral prayers’ for Wani.
A show cause notice was also issued to nine students. Two among them have been charged with sedition.
However, out of the nine, four are not currently a part of the university. After a hue and cry, the list was updated by the university authorities.
Sedition charges have been filed against two students, Waseem Ayoub Malik and Abdul Haseeb Mir, both doctoral students at the AMU. The suspension order was withdrawn later, after condemnations, and the admin at AMU has said that they are considering withdrawing the FIR as well.
Manan Wani, a Kashmiri pursuing his doctorate in geology at AMU joined Hizbul Mujahideen on January 10, this year. The news about the commander’s killing spread like wildfire on October 11.
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While talking to the Free Press Kashmir, one of the students charged with sedition, Haseeb Mir said that the University is becoming subservient and is acting against its own students.
“There was a discussion with AMU proctorial team as to if we would or would not do it. Then, some were saying we should perform funeral prayers for Manan Wani, some were saying, we should not and some were saying we should not do anything about it,” says Haseeb who has been sitting in his hostel since he is booked under sedition charges.
The students also says that when the students went to the proctor with the letter, the proctor had admitted that they are not able to locate around 5 students.
Meanwhile, a show cause notice was issued to Waseem Ayoub Malik pursuing PhD in Biochemistry, Abdul Haseeb Mir pursuing PhD in History, Peerzada Danish Shabir pursuing Bachelors in Science (B.Sc), Aeyaz Ahmad Bhat pursuing Masters in Science, Mohammad Sultan Khan pursuing M.Phill, Raqeeb Sultan pursuing B.Sc, Samiullah Rather pursuing B.Sc, Showkat Ahmad Lone pursuing PhD Programme and Peerzada Mehboobul Haq pursuing B.A (IS studies).
Among these, Malik, Mir, Shabir and Haq are bonafide students of the University.
The notice issued by Mohammad Mohsin Khan Proctor AMU read, “the aforementioned students along with other unidentified students, were responsible for leading an assembling of around 150-200 persons at Kennedy Hall Auditorium lawn at 3:00 pm. without prior permission from the Proctor Office. You then resorted to sloganeering and other objectionable activities which disturb the peaceful conduct of University academic activities.”
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While the students say that no funeral prayers were held at the university, the Proctor writes, “you did not comply with the Proctors’ order for refraining from such activities and resorted to raising abusive and derogatory slogans against University authorities and misbehaved with the subordinate staff of Proctorial team.”
He further had mentioned that the incident has led to an “atmosphere of fear and uncertainty amongst University and has tarnished the image of the University”.
On October 16, Vice President, AMUSU, Sajad Subhan Rather took to Facebook maintaining that “out of the nine accused persons, only 4 are enrolled at AMU and other are former allies who have left the university long back.”
“This is the biggest proof of false implication of Kashmiri students at AMU,” he writes.
Speaking about the issue, Proctor AMU told Free Press Kashmir that the list has been updated and the name of the students who were former allies of the University have been dropped.
To authorities at AMU, this was a minor change in the list, however, the students are now questioning their credibility when “they accuse anyone and everyone of ‘deteriorating’ University’s atmosphere”.
Earlier, PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had asked the Government of India to intervene and revoke sedition cases slapped against the students of Aligarh Muslim University.
In a tweet, Mehbooba said that to punish the students for ‘remembering their former colleague who was a victim of relentless violence in Kashmir would a travesty.’ She added that pushing youth to the wall will be counter productive.
Earlier, Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of the state said that Mannan’s death was ‘entirely our loss’.
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