The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention in revoking charges against Kashmiri students in Uttar Pradesh over contentious social media posts.
The letter comes a day after former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asked the PM to intervene in the case.
The student body has asked Modi to use his office to drop sedition charges against the three Kashmiri students and revoke their suspension. Nasir Khuehami, national spokesperson of the Association said the students pursuing civil engineering in Raja Balwant Singh Engineering Technical College in Agra, were suspended by college authorities and booked for uploading a WhatsApp status in favour of Pakistan after its T-20 match with India.
Calling the action “totally arbitrary and unwarranted", he said the action may have been offensive but not illegal. “If they have written any provocative thing on social media which hurt the sentiments of people, it is wrong and unjustified. However, the college authorities have clarified they did not shout any objectional and controversial slogans," Khuehami said.
The student leader said sedition charges and lodging an FIR against the students were a “very harsh" punishment for the act, and it would ruin their careers and alienate them.
“Such harsh charges on mere WhatsApp messages will put their career and parents’ resources at stake," the student body leader said.
He said the kids needed counselling, and an opportunity to get back to their studies and build a career. “Since they come from very poor families, a severe punishment will mean their families too will be put to suffering," he told News18.
Yunus Rashid, National General Secretary of Association, said the students needed to be talked to because they were stressed.
“The government needs to engage with the students. To begin with, they should be given amnesty for posting something objectionable. You need to build trust and win the hearts of students," he said.
Rashid requested the PM to consider the case of the poor students on humanitarian grounds and withdraw the FIR against them.
Earlier, a Peoples Democratic Party meeting had expressed anguish over the “spree of recent arrests and initiation of action against students within and outside J&K".
The National Conference women wing also held a rally demanding the revocation of cases against students in Srinagar and Agra.
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