AMU sedition case: Asaduddin Owaisi wants Centre to take matter seriously, calls it unfortunate

Aligarh: Amid intense protests by Kashmiri students at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) demanding a revoke in sedition charges, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi has asked the Centre to intervene and solve the matter.

“It is very unfortunate that students are wanting to leave midway. AMU VC, teachers, HM Rajnath Singh and MHA officials should solve this issue. I hope this will be taken seriously,” said Owaisi.

More than 1,200 Kashmiri students studying at AMU threatened to leave their homes on October 17 the sedition charges slapped against three Kashmiri students are not dropped.

In a letter to the AMU vice-chancellor, AMU students' union former vice-president Sajjad Rathar said that more than the students will leave for their homes in the Kashmir Valley on October 17 ''if this vilification does not stop''. He also termed the sedition charges slapped against three Kashmiri students as "vendetta".

Three Kashmiri students of AMU were booked on sedition charges for allegedly for raising "anti-India" slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani on October 12.

Twenty-seven-year-old Wani, pursuing PhD course in Allied Geology at the AMU, had quit the university and joined militant ranks in January this year. He was killed in an encounter at Shatgund village in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Thursday.

Aligarh's Senior Superintendent of Police Ajai Sahni said police took the action (on October 12) after a video surfaced, showing the three Kashmiri students raising "anti-India" slogans.

The three students were suspended from the AMU earlier.

Some AMU students from Kashmir had on October 11 gathered near Kennedy Hall on the campus to hold funeral prayers for Wani, following which the varsity staff and the students union leaders had rushed to the spot and tried to stop them.

A heated exchange erupted between the students union leaders and the Kashmiri students and they finally moved out of the area.

With agency inputs