Student’s Arrest Sparks Protests At KU

Geelani Seeks End To Police Harassment

Srinagar – Students at Kashmir University Saturday boycotted their departments and staged protest against the arrest of a Commerce student and demanded his early release. Manazir Amin Dar was picked up by the special operations group of state police on Friday from his residence at Badami Bagh, Sopore.  .

Over a thousand students from all the faculties took out a protest rally which went round through the campus. Shouting slogans against the J&K police and what they described as brutal state repression squatted outside the vice-chancellor’s secretariat demanding early release of the student.

Reports said that after his arrest, Dar, a second semester M.Com student from Business and Financial Studies department, had been taken to some unknown place. The police are seeking to know the whereabouts of Dar’s elder brother, who they claim was a militant. 

“Detaining innocent Manazir is a pure case of blackmail and was bound to put his career in jeopardy. Both parents of the student have been questioned. During the course of interrogation, Dar’s father sustained a fracture in his arm,” Humanities student, Sajid Zahoor, told Kashmir Observer.

The protesters said police was not disclosing the whereabouts of Munazir and nobody, not even his family members, were allowed to meet him.

When contacted, PRO Police said he had no information yet and was enquiring about the matter.

Meanwhile, condemning Dar’s arrest and describing it as another case of state-sponsored terrorism, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, demanded early release of the university student.

Sources said police had been on the look out for Dar’s brother, Muzzammil Amin Dar alias Urfi, for a long time and repeated raids had been carried out at his home and at  relatives’ places. He worked as a theatre assistant at the SMHS hospital and went into hiding since February 2011 when police began looking for him. Since then, he has never visited his home. 

In a statement, Hurriyat (G) spokesman alleged the SOG and state police had been harassing the family for the past year and on 17th of this month, Dar and his father were summoned to the SOG camp where the former was detained. He was taken to some undisclosed place and the family members were not being allowed to meet him.

“There is no constitutional or legal justification to arrest the university student in place of his missing brother, the spokesman quoted Geelani as saying.

Geelani also condemned the unabated harassment of the family members of Hurriyat leader, Muhammad Ashraf Laya, at Baramulla. He accused the state police of being hell bent on harassing Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leaders. “Our leaders and activists are implicated in fictitious cases to break their resolve,” he said.

In a separate statement, he said police had raided Laya’s Burzalla house Friday evening and harassed his family members for several hours. His ailing mother was shocked at the raids and had to be shifted to hospital while the identity cards of children were also seized, he alleged.

He said Laya was present in the public meeting Geelani had addressed at Baramulla on

6th April, 2012. Police had registered an FIR against Geelani and also included Laya’s name in it. Although Laya was bailed out three months ago, police have continued raiding his house and harassing his family, he said.

Terming the actions as “state terrorism,” he alleged the state police had declared a war against the people and its role was more heinous than that of the Indian army. He urged the human rights organizations to take cognizance of the situation in Kashmir and play their role in “safeguarding the people against state terror.”  (With inputs from KNS)

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