Jammu and Kashmir Police used force on NIT Srinagar students: Nirmal Singh

The CRPF has been deployed at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar campus and the Jammu and Kashmir government has assured full security to students.

Pic courtesy: ANI

Srinagar: A two-member team of the Ministry of Human Resource Development will on Wednesday visit the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar, where unrest flared again on Tuesday after a group of students clashed with the police.

In the wake of tension, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been deployed at the campus.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh accepted that the police used force on students and assured that he would look into the incident.

The NIT was closed by the authorities on March 31 following a row during the India-West Indies World T20 cricket match. The institute resumed normal functioning on Tuesday, but ended the day in chaos.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also called up Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and discussed with her the situation at NIT.

What happened at NIT on Tuesday?

Some non-local students attempted to leave the campus and return to their home states on Tuesday, saying, they were "not feeling safe" inside the campus, a police official said.

Police personnel on duty at the NIT tried to reassure the students that they were safe inside the campus but they were not pacified, he said.

As the head of the security deployment was speaking to them, a few of the students allegedly resorted to sloganeering and even pushed him around, the official claimed.

He said the other police personnel then resorted to "lathicharge" to disperse the students who were "getting violent".

The situation, however, was brought under control shortly, the official said.

Outstation students, on the other hand, alleged that they were holding protests and were lathicharged by the police with brute forces and not allowed to move out of the NIT gate.

"We had sat on dharna and were demanding meeting with HRD officials. We held meeting with NIT administration and they agreed to the demand. We were allowed freely to move out the gate," said one of the students on condition of the anonymity.

"When we were going out of the campus as per the past practice, police did not allow us and resorted to cane-charge resulting in injuries to several students," he claimed.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh told PTI in Jammu last night: "We assure security to the students of various states of the country studying in NIT Srinagar. Additional security of CRPF has been deployed at the campus."

Singh, who along with Minister of State (MoS) Education Priya Sethi, talked to Mehbooba, DGP K Rajendra and NIT director, said, "All measures are being taken by the administration of the NIT to instill confidence among these students and the issues raised by them are being resolved."

In Delhi, HRD Ministry officials said they were in touch with the management of the institute and the Director of the NIT has spoken to the students so that normalcy prevails.

On Friday last, the campus had witnessed clashes between local and non-local students over India's defeat in the semi-final match in the World T20 tournament.