- Saturday, May 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
AUTHORITIES in India have taken celebrations over Pakistan’s win against India in the T20 World Cup in Dubai on October 24 seriously. Three Kashmiri students, for example, were arrested in the city of Agra in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday (27) for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s dominant win over India and Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the state who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, warned that those celebrating Pakistan’s victory will be charged with sedition.
The three students who have been arrested study engineering at Agra’s Raja Balwant Singh College, India’s NDTV news channel reported. While Arsheed Yousuf and Inayat Altaf Sheikh are in their third year, Showkat Ahmed Ganai is in his fourth. They were set to be produced in court.
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The trio have been charged with promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion and cyber-terrorism. And going by a tweet posted by UP’s chief minister’s office, they may also face sedition charges.
पाक की जीत का जश्न मनाने वालों पर देशद्रोह लगेगा: मुख्यमंत्री श्री @myogiadityanath जी महाराज pic.twitter.com/34DEij8y3t
— Yogi Adityanath Office (@myogioffice) October 28, 2021
Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir who has been a vocal critic of the Modi government’s move to scrap its special status in 2019, slammed the crackdown on Kashmiri students both within and outside the union territory and called for the immediate release of the arrested students.
“Situation in J&K after two years of suppression should’ve been an eye-opener for GOI & lead to course correction.BJPs pseudo patriotism disregards the idea of India,” she said in a tweet.
Besides the three college students who were suspended by their institution on grounds of “being involved in indiscipline act of posting status in favour of Pakistan” after the high-voltage clash that Babar Azam’s men won by 10 wickets, four more were arrested in UP – three in Bareilly and one in Lucknow.
“The incident came to light that after the match, anti-national remarks were made. We received a complaint, and an FIR was lodged. They were arrested after a probe,” Vikas Kumar, superintendent of police, Agra City, told Asian News International.
Gaurav Rajawat of the Bharatoya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP’s youth wing, led activists to reach the campus of the arrested students’ college in Bichpuri area of Agra on the day of the match and claimed that slogans supporting Pakistan were allegedly being raised there. They also accused the college of sheltering traitors. Rajawat then filed a complaint against the Kashmiri students and they were arrested.
The college administration called a press conference the next day and said some “outsiders” had entered the campus without permission in vehicles and reached the hostel gate.
“Is this appropriate? Provoking students and telling them the college is involved in anti-national activities. That we are providing a safe haven to the wrong people,” a representative from the college said. He added that if anyone has any grievances, they should meet the director of the institution and enquire about it instead of creating ruckus.
Meanwhile, police were investigating students and staff at two medical colleges in Kashmir under an anti-terror law on grounds of celebrating India’s defeat against Pakistan, officials said on Tuesday (26).
According to the police, some students and staff at the government-run colleges cheered pro-Pakistan slogans during the game and they called it an “anti-national” activity. Minutes after Pakistan won their first-ever World Cup fixture against the arch-rivals, hundreds of people in Kashmir came out in the streets and danced.
Firecrackers burst and shouted “Long Live Pakistan” slogans. They also sought an end of India’s rule in Kashmir, National Public Radio, the US, reported.
The celebrations also happened at a time when Indian home minister Amit Shah visited the region for the first time since Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood was scrapped and its inherited protections on land and jobs were removed.
The anti-terror law was amended two years ago to allow the government to designate individuals as terrorists. Under this law, the police can detain people for six months without producing any evidence and the accused can be imprisoned for up to seven years. Rights activists have condemned the law as draconian.
In the northern Indian state of Punjab, over a dozen Kashmiri students were reportedly attacked after they celebrated Pakistan’s win.
India and Pakistan share a rocky relationship over Kashmir, which is claimed by both sides and they have clashed a number of times over the region, leaving it as one of the most troubled zones in the world.
