Students to be punished for taking selfie during anthem

Srinagar: A day after daring the Centre to hoist tricolour at Srinagar's historic Lal Chowk before talking about unfurling it in PoK, opposition National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday demanded strict action against two students who had allegedly shown disrespect to the national flag at a university function in Jammu and Kashmir's frontier Rajouri district last week.

The police had on November 23 registered an FIR against two students who allegedly did not stand up when the national anthem was being played at the concluding function of the 3rd Inter-State (North Zone) Declamation Contest at Rajouri's Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) a day earlier.

J&K governor, N.N. Vohra, was the chief guest at the function. When the national anthem was being played, two students could be seen taking a selfie which later went viral on social media.

The police booked the duo under Section 3 of Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act (PINHA).

Mr Abdullah, a three-time CM, on Tuesday said, "I think these students have made a great mistake as the honour of the nation is important and action must be taken. They will have to suffer the consequences of what they have done. The government should initiate action against them unless they apologize."

The NC leader had on Monday invited criticism from the BJP and some like-minded parties and groups when he said that the Centre should first hoist the tricolour at Srinagar's Lal Chowk before talking about unfurling it in PoK. Earlier he had also said that PoK belongs to Pakistan.