Several organisations including Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, Jammu Province Peoples Forum and Sri Ram Sena called for a Jammu bandh on Thursday in protest against the alleged police action on outstation students at NIT in Srinagar.
“We unanimously decided to observe complete bandh in Jammu on April 7,” JPPF working president M S Katoch said.
Katoch appealed to all Jammuites to make the call a success in support of outstation students studying in NIT Srinagar.
JPPF, an amalgam of over 50 various social, commercial and other organisations, has strongly criticised the state government for provoking anti-national activities in NIT Srinagar by hurting sentiments of nationalist forces.
He alleged the government was hell bent to destroy the peace and communal harmony in the state.
Strongly condemning lathi charge on the outstation students by Jammu and Kashmir police, Katoch demanded security and their protection in the campus.
Demanding a judicial probe into the incident and strict action, he said the police entered the campus and brutally beaten and thrashed outstation students, the action will adversely affect the thousands of Kashmiri students studying outside the state as it will create a sense of insecurity among them.
Meanwhile, JKNPP also announced a Jammu bandh.
Terming as “inhumane” the lathi charge on students, JKNPP leader Harsh Dev Singh appealed to all Jammuites to unite and come forward to support call for “Jammu Bandh”.
Singh condemned the ugly episode of clash inside the NIT campus when certain anti-national elements celebrated India’s defeat by the Caribbean team in the World T20 Cup match.
Those involved in alleged India bashing, raising pro-Azadi slogans and pelting stones should be booked under sedition charges and other provisions of the Ranbir Penal code, he said.
He also criticised the police for lathi charge on students and slammed the state government for its failure to provide security to the traumatised students “who have been unlawfully detained and confined within the four walls of the institute campus”.
He also expressed solidarity with the parents of the students and sought dismissal of police personnel who were involved in lathi charge.
Meanwhile Sri Ram Sena in the state has also announced a one-day bandh in Jammu.
“We have called a bandh on Thursday over the NIT incident which is a shameful act of some anti national elements,” its leader Rajiv said.
Image: Police and CRPF personnel deployed at National Institute of Technology following tensions between the local and non-local students of the institute, in Srinagar. Photograph: S Irfan/PTI
