Unrest in NIT Srinagar After Outstation Students Are Lathi-charged

CRPF was deployed at campus while the J&K goverment assured security to all outstation students at the university.

CRPF personnel deployed at NIT Srinagar. (Photo Courtesy: ANI)

Unrest was witnessed on Tuesday at the NIT Srinagar campus, with outstation students expressing a sense of insecurity and attempting to leave the campus. This lead to a confrontation with police, who resorted to lathicharge in which some were injured.

With the situation tense, CRPF was deployed at the campus and the Jammu and Kashmir government assured full security to the students studying here from other states.

Some non-local students attempted to leave the campus and return to their home states, saying, they were “not feeling safe” inside the campus, a police official said. Police personnel on duty at the NIT tried to reassure the students that they were safe inside the campus but they were not pacified, he said.

As the head of the security deployment was speaking with them, a few students allegedly resorted to sloganeering and even pushed him around, the official claimed. He said the other police personnel then resorted to “lathicharge” to disperse the students who were “getting violent”.

The situation, however, was brought under control shortly, the official said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to ANI about the clash between students and police and said that adequate measures are being taken.

We assure security to the students of various states of the country studying in NIT Srinagar. Additional security of CRPF has been deployed at the campus. All measures are being taken by the administration of the NIT to instill confidence among these students and the issues raised by them are being resolved.

Nirmal Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir

Outstation students, on the other hand, alleged that they were holding protests and were lathicharged by the police with brute forces and not allowed to move out of the NIT gate.

“We had sat on dharna and were demanding a meeting with HRD officials. We held a meeting with NIT administration and they agreed to the demand. We were allowed freely to move out the gate,” said one of the students on condition of anonymity.

“When we were going out of the campus as per the past practice, police did not allow us and resorted to cane-charge resulting in injuries to several students,” he claimed.