CAA protest: University of Hyderabad students demand withdrawal of FIR

HYDERABAD: Research scholars and student union members from University of Hyderabad (UoH) held a protest on Sunday, demanding the withdrawal of an FIR that was registered against a number of students for participating in a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in February this year. 

Fourteen students were recently served notices by the Raidurgam police, who asked them to appear for further investigation on October 6. “We did not even know until Saturday that we had our names registered in an FIR,” said Hadif Nisar,  one of the students who was named in the FIR. 

“The HCU Co-ordination Committee (HCC), along with Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) students’ union, conducted a joint, peaceful anti-CAA protest on February. But we did not know that an FIR was registered against us, nor were we informed about it in the last seven months,” he said. “I am worried that I might have to travel from Anantnag in Kashmir to Hyderabad for this. We are all scattered across the corners of the country,” he added. The notice was dispatched on October 8 and received by one of the students on October 10. According to the notice, on February 21, around 30 students of UoH illegally gathered at Coffee Day Shop and too out a rally from there to MANUU.