Three Kashmiri students have been arrested for assaulting a collegemate over his Facebook page against the Pulwama suicide bomber. An engineering dropout from the city was arrested for a Facebook post praising the attack.
All of them have been booked for sedition. With these arrests, a total of six people, including five Kashmiris, have been arrested in Bengaluru for praising the Pulwama attack.
The students — Gowhar Mushtaq, 21, from Baramulla; Haris Manzoor, 19, and Zakir Maqbool, 23, both from Kupwara — were arrested by the Surya Nagara police on Saturday night. Mushtaq is a second-year student and Manzoor a first-year student at the Spurthy Institute of Nursing, which is located at Marasur Gate, Anekal Main Road, on the southern outskirts of Bengaluru.
Maqbool is a fourth-year student at the Chinai College of Nursing, Bommanahalli. Manzoor and Maqbool had secured admission under the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme.
The students allegedly took objection to a Facebook post put out by Koushik Debnath, a third-year student of general nursing at the college, condemning the suicide bomber and supporting the Indian Army.
The matter escalated on February 15 when the police said the Kashmiri students attacked Debnath and their non-Kashmiri peers at the college mess. Babu D, the principal, approached the police.
Police arrested the students, seized their mobile phones and booked them under IPS sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language), 323 (assault), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and section 13 (advocates, abets, advises or incites the commission of any unlawful activity) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
A police officer said the students had confessed to posting comments on Facebook in support of Kashmir and Pakistan. A court has remanded them in judicial custody.
The cyber crime police on Sunday arrested Faiz Rasheed, 20, an engineering dropout from HBR Layout, for praising the Pulwama suicide bomber and criticising the Indian Army in a Facebook post.
DyCM promises security
In a tweet, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara reassured Kashmiris living in Bengaluru. “In troubled times, it is imperative to stay united. Harassing, attacking or abusing #KashmiriStudents is not the solution for anything. Students from #JammuAndKashmir, please reach out to @BlrCityPolice or @CPBlr if you’re feeling unsafe and need help. We are one,” he wrote.