Indian Kashmiris backing Pakistan team probed for sedition

LUCKNOW, India – Some 60 students from Indian-administered Kashmir may face sedition charges for cheering Pakistan’s victory over arch-rivals India in a cricket match, police said Thursday.

Police were investigating the students following a complaint from university officials in the northern city of Meerut over celebrations following Pakistan’s win on Sunday in an Asia Cup clash.

The students, all enrolled at the Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU), have been suspended and were escorted from campus over what the vice chancellor called “unacceptable” behaviour after the match.

“The SVSU administration on Wednesday submitted a written complaint against unknown persons for indulging in anti-national activities and creating a ruckus on the university campus,” Meerut police chief Omkar Singh told AFP.

“We have registered a case and the probe is on,” Singh said.

“If evidence is established against the accused, there is a set legal procedure to be followed in such cases. The law will take its own course,” he said, adding that any charges would be ones of sedition.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but each claims it in full. They have fought two wars since 1947 over the northern Himalayan territory.

Since 1989 Indian forces have been fighting militant groups seeking independence or the merger of the territory with Pakistan, with repressive policing and human rights abuses feeding into local anti-India resentment.

Many Kashmiris associate more with Pakistan, a Muslim-majority Islamic republic, than with Hindu-majority India which is officially secular.

Indian Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said any sedition charges would be too harsh.

“Sedition charge against Kashmiri students is an unacceptably harsh punishment that will ruin their futures & will further alienate them,” Abdullah said on Twitter.

“I believe what the students did was wrong & misguided but they certainly didn’t deserve to have charges of sedition slapped against them.”

Students chant ‘hail Pakistan’

The trouble began when the students were watching the game on TV in the university’s community hall. Pakistan sealed victory by one wicket when Shahid Afridi smashed two consecutive sixes.

Some of the students were accused of chanting “Pakistan zindabad (hail Pakistan)” and damaging university property during the resulting celebrations, a university official said on condition of anonymity.

Vice-chancellor Manzoor Ahmad said “he was taken aback by such an unacceptable gesture of a few students”.

“We can’t accept such behaviour from any student,” Ahmad told the Hindustan Times and other local media, adding that all of the students were suspended after they refused to reveal the wrongdoers.

Some of the students, who have since returned to Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, claimed they were attacked by fellow students offended by their celebrations, and their hostel was damaged.

“As Pakistan won the match the (hostel) warden started beating us. Later, about 400 students attacked our hostel,” Muteeb ul Majid Khan, a business student, told reporters.

“Just because we supported the Pakistan team, our life and careers have been put at stake,” said another student, Gulzar Ahmed.

“We are not ready to go back, none of us. Anything can happen after this. Who will take responsibility for our safety there?”

Celebrations erupted in Srinagar on Sunday over the win, with hundreds taking to the streets and lighting firecrackers.

Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman said sedition charges would be “very unfortunate”.

“If the Kashmiri students want to come and pursue their education in Pakistan, our hearts and academic institutions are open to them,” Tasnim Aslam told reporters in Islamabad.

In 2012 an anti-government cartoonist was arrested in another sedition case, raising concerns about limits on freedom of speech.

Prosecutors later dropped the charge against the cartoonist, whose online drawings included the national parliament depicted as a huge toilet bowel in a comment against corruption. – Rappler.com