Actor Anupam Kher, 61, a Kashmiri pandit, had earlier voiced concerns over recent incidents at the Srinagar NIT campus, particularly the April 5 police lathicharge against protesting outstation students, that left many injured.
On Sunday morning, Kher wrote on Twitter: “Landed in Srinagar. ‘HOME’ away from home. Will go to#NITSrinagar & meet the students & give them a wa-rm hug & a special gift.:)”
In the next tweet, he said: “I have been told by J&K police that I cannot enter Srinagar city at all. I have asked them to show me the orders. Still at the airport.”
After being stopped at the airport, he tweeted: “Asked J&K Police if I can visit my ancestral home or Kheer Bhawani temple. Even that is not allowed. Basically it is #AirportArrest.”
Police sources said Kher, after being denied permission to visit NIT Srinagar, insisted on visiting Shankaracharya and Kheerbhawani temples and a cousin sister’s home in Srinagar’s Shivpora locality, but was refused permission.
The authorities felt his visit to the Srinagar NIT campus could create problems and even destabilise efforts by the government to restore normality on the campus.
A senior police official said: “The decision to prevent Kher and Pandit from visiting the campus was taken to prevent any further disturbances.” Pandit had earlier alleged in a tweet that the J&K police was a “force of anti-nationals... who look towards Pakistan”.
IGP Kashmir Syed Javed Mujtaba Gilani, DIG Central Kashmir Ghulam Hassan Bhat and SSP Budgam Fayaz Ahmad Lone, who met the duo at the airport, persuaded them to return after explaining that the joint efforts of the J&K government and the HRD ministry to restore normality at Srinagar NIT was yielding “positive results” and their visit to the campus at this stage could undermine it. They were also told the authorities had already accepted all “genuine” demands by the protesting students.
