Police on alert after rightwing protests against Kashmiri students

Police was put on alert in Dehradun after dozens of rightwing activists on Friday stormed several educational institutes here and sought "ouster" of Kashmiri students in the wake of the deadly Pulwama attack.

"We have deployed our police force around certain educational institutes and put our police force on alert," said Ashok Kumar, Director General of Police (DGP) Law and Order.

The activists belonging to Bajrang Dal and VHP stormed Rash Behari Bose University and allegedly vandalized some furniture and broke window panes after a Kashmiri student, who allegedly made offensive comments on the social media. Similar protests were seen outside some other educational colleges also. However, police denied any reports of vandalism.

K Aysir Rashid, who was perusing a medical course from Rash Behari Bose University in Dehradun, was placed under suspension after he made some offensive comments on the Pulwama attack, the university authorities said.

"We received a message on WhatsApp which read 'Happy today, aaj to chicken dinner ho gaya'. This message has already gone viral. It is natural that the message should be linked to the Kashmir attack," the University Registrar said in a note to Rashid.

The university ordered an inquiry to look into the controversy and also asked the student to send his clarification on the controversial comment. Rashid is a first year student of Bachelor of Medical Radio Diagnosis and Imaging Technology course at the Ras Behari Bose Subharti University, which has asked him not to enter the campus till further orders.

After posting the comment, Rashid was heavily trolled on social media. Many social organizations and groups reached the Rash Behari Bose Subharti University in Dehradun and vandalized some furniture in the building. They expressed their anger.

After making the controversial post, Rashid later expressed his apology on the Facebook. "As u all friend know that i posted a silly post last night ...that was by mistake... i apologize for that..," Rashid said in his post on Facebook.

--IANS

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