STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday dismissed the trouble between local and outside students in Kashmir college as a “non-issue”, being highlighted by certain people as a “communal incident”. According to a news agency, Mehbooba said, “I had expressed the same view to central Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani after violent protests erupted at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar following India’s loss to West Indies in a T20 cricket match last week”. Non-local students in the college had objected to and carried out demonstrations against celebrations over the victory of the Caribbeans that saw India out of the T20 world championship.
Mehbooba said that she informed Irani that a handful of non-resident students at the college were “keen to migrate” to other colleges outside the State.
The parents of NIT Srinagar students in Jammu have condemned her statement. A parent on the condition of anonymity said, “Our children have been beaten with sticks. They have bled and the CM calls it a non-issue? Does this mean that our children will have to study in the same life-threatening conditions?”