PU seeks info on Kashmiri students

Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 15

Panjab University has started profiling Kashmiri students. The move comes after three youths were caught with an AK-47 rifle and pistols in Jalandhar on October 10.

An email from the Dean of University Instructions, Prof Shankarji Jha, to all departments, dated October 11, states, “You are requested to provide information on Kashmiri students admitted to your department/centre/institute to the office of the undersigned latest by October 11 till 4 pm positively in the given format (hard copy) or through e-mail (dui@pu.ac.in).”

The PU has asked for name of the student, father’s name, class, address and contact number.

Before this, such details have never been sought from any department.

The email further states, “This may be treated as most urgent/time bound.”

It is, however, not clear whether Kashmiri students refers to those belonging to the Kashmir Valley alone or even those hailing from Jammu and Ladakh.

Most of the departments have sent the details. “We have got the details of 50 students. Some departments are yet to respond,” said the DUI, Prof Shankarji Jha. He said he had been asked to send such a circular, but did not know the purpose behind seeking such details.

On October 10, three Kashmiri students were arrested from the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology, Jalandhar, for allegedly being members of militant outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). A search yielded weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle, three Italy-made pistols and explosives. The police had said that one of the arrested students was a cousin of AGH chief Zakir Musa, aka Zakir Rashid Bhat. Musa was studying engineering in Mohali and had joined the Hizb unit in Tral in 2013, when he had gone home on a vacation. 

On October 11, three Aligarh Muslim University students were also 

suspended for allegedly trying to hold funeral prayers for militant Manan Bashir Wani, who died in an encounter in the Handwara area in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.  

No official comment came from the PU when asked for. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Raj Kumar, said he was not aware of any such letter and asked this correspondent to contact his Secretary. His Secretary, Dr Muneeshwar Joshi, couldn’t be contacted as his phone was switched off.

‘Wrong to profile them’

“It is wrong on the part of the PU to profile Kashmiri students. And if the information is being shared with intelligence agencies, that is also wrong,” said Daler Singh, vice-president, PUCSC.

“Just like Aligarh Muslim University, the PU has also been threatening Kashmiri students on the campus. They will be put under surveillance,” said Kanupriya, president, Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC).

‘We are being harassed’

“It is happening everywhere now. We are kept under surveillance. Tabs are being kept on us to know whom we meet; our phones are also tapped. We are being harassed,” said Faheem Ud Din Dar, who hails from Baramulla in Kashmir and has completed his master’s in philosophy from the PU this year.