AMU revokes suspension of 2 Kashmiri students

Aligarh/Srinagar: The Aligarh Muslim University revoked on Tuesday the suspension of two Kashmiri students, saying “no credible evidence” of their participation in any “unlawful assembly” in the varsity campus was found.

Earlier in the day, J&K governor Satya Pal Malik spoke to Union minister for human resources development Prakash Javadekar to seek his intervention “to ensure smooth studies of Kashmiri students” at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). In this regard, the governor also spoke to the vice-chancellor of AMU, Prof. Tariq Mansoor.

AMU spokesman Sahafay Kidwai told a news agency that the suspension of AMU research scholars Wasim Ayub Malik and Abdul Hasib Meer was revoked after “they were exonerated by a three-member enquiry committee of the university”.

“No credible evidence was found against the two students,” Prof Kidwai said.

Malik and Meer, hailing from Kashmir, were suspended on Friday for allegedly participating in an aborted Namaaz-e-Janaza (prayer meeting) in the university campus for a slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Manan Bashir Wani.

Twenty seven-year-old Wani, pursing a PhD course in Allied Geology at the AMU, had quit the university and joined militant ranks in January this year.

He  was killed in an encounter at Shatgund village in Handwara area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district last Thursday.

Malik and Meer, besides one unknown person were also booked by the police on sedition charges for allegedly raising “anti-India” slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Wani. The investigations by the police in this matter are still on.

The Kashmiri students studying at the AMU had on Sunday also threatened to leave for their homes on October 17, if the sedition charges against three of them were not dropped.

About 920 Kashmiri students on roll at the AMU have threatened to quit unless the sedition charges on three fellow students are withdrawn and alleged harassment by local authorities is put to an end.

The university authorities have also issued show cause notices to seven other students from Kashmir over a gathering held in a university hall on October 12 during which, as per police statement, some students had allegedly chanted anti-Indian slogans.

The Kashmiri students have, however, denied the charges levelled against them.