Kashmiri student rusticated from SGT for Pulwama comments

A Kashmiri medical student was on Tuesday rusticated from the SGT University here for posting alleged "objectionable" comments on the February 14 Pulwama attack that hurt her co-students' sentiments, a varsity official said.

Identified as Sadaf Zaffar, the second year student of Bachelor of Radiology and Imaging Technology (BRIT) was asked to leave the institute after her Instagram post in support of the Pulwama carnage that left 40 paramilitary troopers dead.

She was asked to leave the hostel immediately.

"I don't like this incident but if you rape Kashmiri women, use pellet guns, kill innocent people and make Kashmiri children blind with needles, what will you get?," Zaffar wrote on Monday.

"This was not terrorist attack. This is returns of what you did with Kashmiri people. Use love not guns against Kashmir," her social networking site post at 1.44 p.m. on Monday said.

She also posted a photograph of the blast site and allegedly added "not 40, but 400 must have been killed".

In a written statement issued by the Office of Registrar, the institute said: "We have received a memorandum from students, dated February 19, 2019, that a student named Sadaf Zaffar (enrollment number 170528023) has posted anti-national article on social platform.

"The university shall not tolerate any such indiscipline inside the campus and rusticates her with immediate effect."

Following Zaffar's post, other students reacted sharply, mounting pressure on the management to take action against her.

"We made objections soon after Zaffar posted on Instagram. The students urged the management to take action. Since classes are over by 5 p.m., the management could not take any action on Monday," said Harish Gulia, a second year student at SGT.

The students also held protests against Zaffar on Tuesday morning.

"We have also tagged senior officials of Gurugram police, Haryana Minister, Deputy Commissioners to make them aware of the situation in the university. Following pressure from all quarters, the management decided to rusticate her," said Piyush Saini, a third year student of Agriculture.

Saini said there were five-six more Kashmiri students studying in the university and they should also be rusticated. "They are also against the Indian Armed Forces," he added.

"The accused student was asked to leave the hostel following the protest," Rajneesh Yadav, a senior SGT official told IANS.

A four-member committee, headed by the Director (Academic), has been constituted by the university to investigate the matter.

Even though Zaffar said she has deleted her post, her local guardians have taken her away from the premises.

"There are many students from J&K studying in the university. No police complaint has been made on the part of the SGT," Yadav added.

--IANS

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