Hope students will return soon, Kashmir is their home: Mehbooba on NIT exodus

Expressing confidence of resolving the current state of unrest at Srinagar's National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said she hoped that the students, who recently left the varsity, would return soon as Kashmir was their 'home'.

"They are our own children. India is a diverse nation with different cultures and religion living together in harmony and the situation is same in our colleges. An issue crept earlier in Hyderabad, JNU and now in NIT, so it is not like something completely new is happening," Mufti told ANI here after her meeting with Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu at his official residence.

Asserting that it was the job of the state government to provide security to the students studying in the NIT, she added that the incident of violence at the varsity did not warrant any assumptions that a divide was being created.

"These students have been here for a long time and I hope that they come back soon and live once again in harmony. Kashmir is their home," Mufti said.

Around 2,000 non-Kashmiri students earlier left the NIT in a mass exodus, following the state of unrest in the campus after clashes broke out between local and outstation students post India's defeat in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup.

The situation worsened last week when the outstation students tried to take out a march outside the campus, but were stopped eventually leading to baton-charge by the police.