Gangrar: MEAT cooked in a hostel room, tension between students from Jammu and those from the Kashmir valley, a 200-strong mob including Bajrang Dal members, and a dramatic intervention by police. When a group of Kashmiri students at Mewar University decided to get together on an off day, they had no idea what their meat party would trigger.
Today, with their two-day detention making national headlines, and police sources claiming they had picked up the students to placate the mob, an uneasy calm hangs over the campus. The students, meanwhile, are back in their hostel rooms, insisting that there was no trouble and admitting they were at fault for breaking the private universitys rules by cooking buffalo meat on campus.
Dont worry. Its just a media trial, one of them assured a family member over the phone on Thursday, three days after the incident that was sparked off by rumours that Kashmiri students were cooking beef inside their room.
Police, meanwhile, booked one person under section 108 CrPC for spreading the beef rumour and initiated action under section 186 CrPC against those who obstructed police work.
They also served a notice to the university asking its administration to explain why there had been several law-and-order issues on campus over the last few days. According to sources, the administration responded with an assurance that it would ensure order among students.
When contacted, Harish Gurnani, media liaison officer for the university, described the incident as minor. Everything is fine, he said.
But a police officer deployed at the university said that had we not calmed tempers of the mob, no one can say what would have happened. There is a railway line right there. They would have had an unlimited supply of stones to pelt us with, said the officer, pointing towards the track barely 500 metres from the boundary wall of the university.
According to eyewitnesses, police initially picked up four other Kashmiri students from the hostel on Monday night.
After learning their friends had been picked up Saqib Ashraf (21), Mohammad Maqbool (21), Shaukat Ali Butt (20) and Hilal Ahmad (21) turned themselves in at the Gangrar station.
Police confirmed that all eight part of the Prime Ministers Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students of J&K were arrested as a preventive measure under section 151 of the CrPC.
But while the Kashmiri students who were picked up alleged that they were made to sign bonds that they would not indulge in any activity that would disturb public peace and order, Chittorgarh SP P K Khamesara claimed that they were only brought in for questioning.
One of the four who were initially picked up said that they were relaxing in their rooms when police took them away.
Khamesara said the preventive arrests were made only when the students refused to cooperate with police and acted aggressively.
There were three things: we didnt allow the rumour to linger, we dispelled it immediately and we didnt allow the mob to get in. We took the four students in only as preventive action, said Khamesara.
According to the students, Monday was a much-needed break on campus after a 15-day annual tech fest, and they were issued passes to go outside. But on their way back, the Kashmiri students said, four of them sneaked in some buffalo meat they had bought from a shop near the Chittorgarh railway station.
Officials confirmed that the university campus, hostels and mess are strictly vegetarian by policy.
According to police sources, as the Kashmiri students were cooking the meat in their room, a student from Jammu got a whiff of the aroma of non-vegetarian food and confronted the boys.
There is this constant tension on campus between boys from Jammu and those from Kashmir. These boys had a tiff with some Jammu students around 15 days ago at the mess, said the officer deployed on campus.
The students, however, denied any such rivalry. The students from Jammu are our friends. I dont know why they confronted us, said Maqbool, a resident of Kupwara.
The situation escalated as several students gathered around room no 201 of the New Hostel building, where the four stay, police said. One among that group sent a picture captioned Kashmiri students cooking beef on WhatsApp, they added.
Soon, police said, activists of the Bajrang Dal and a little-known outfit Vande Mataram Sangathan among others, gathered outside the main gate, demanding that the Kashmiri students be arrested.
We got information from one of our members about beef being cooked by Kashmiri students in two hostel rooms. The Kashmiri students have vitiated the environment of this region, said Mukesh Nahta of the Bajrang Dal, who claimed to have led the mob.
When we came to know about the mob, we were really scared. So we went and hid somewhere else, says Saqib, a second-year student of civil engineering.
Within an hour, police arrived at the scene and seized the contentious meat. And since they could not find the four who were cooking it, they knocked at the door of the room across, which housed Khalid Faizan (19), Tanvir Ahmad (18), Rahil Manzoor (18) and Irshad Rashid (19).
It was about 8:30 pm and we were relaxing in our room. The police asked us our names and told us to come with them, said Tanvir, a second-year of mechanical engineering from Anantnag.
But when we went downstairs, there were some journalists clicking our pictures and others hurling abuse at us. The police did not mistreat us but we did not like our pictures being taken because they can be misused on social media, said Rashid, second-year student from Qazigund.
The students said they were taken to the station and kept in a cell before being moved to the clerks room after a senior officer came and asked them to take us out of the cell.
The next morning, on the advice of the university administration and the Chittorgarh SP, Saqib, Maqbool, Shaukat and Hilal went to the Gangrar station, where they were detained till Wednesday afternoon. We were not kept in a lock-up and the police was nice to us, said Shaukat.
According to Mewar university officials, the institution has about 5,000 students, out of which 2,000 are hostel residents. Of these, about 1,000 are students from J&K, funded under the PMs scheme launched by the UPA government in 2011.
There are students from all over the country here. Sometimes they take time adjusting to each other. Our students cooperated fully with the investigation. Well be counselling the students on our part, said Gurnani, the media liaison officer.
ATS tab on Kashmiris in Goa to target business: Tradesmen
Goa, March 18, CNS: People mostly businessmen from Kashmir Valley putting up in South Indian state Goa have expressed anguish and concern over the recent statement made by Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar that the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Goa Police has been instructed to conduct door-to-door checks of tenements inhabited by people from Jammu and Kashmir.
ATS can keep tabs on Kashmiris without making it to the public, Tasaduq Ahmed running handicrafts showroom in Panaji said. It hurts our interests and affects our business when government goes public. The statement of Goa Chief Minister has given an impression that Kashmiri people doing business in Goa are indulging in crimes and other subversive activities.
Kashmiri people have set up their business showrooms adjacent to world famous beeches of Goa including Panaji, Kalangot, Agonda, Benalin and Anjuna.
Tourists throng their showrooms to make purchases of handicraft and other articles related to Kashmir. From past 20 years we have been doing business here. Even released militants established their business in Goa and lived peacefully.
The locals admire the mind set up of Kashmiri people here but the recent statement of Goa Chief Minister disappointed us. We appeal to Goa government that if it really want to keep a record of the Kashmiri people, dont make it to the public but do it secretly. That way our business will not get affected, said another businessman.
The businessmen from said that they are being questioned by ATS of Goa who direct them to provide personal details. Earlier after the arrival of any Kashmiri to Goa, police used to ask him to fill up a form called C-Form, but besides that form, now day-to-day details about our activities are being sought from us. This is embarrassing, they said.
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