'AMU suspends three Kashmiri students for trying to hold prayer meeting for Wani'

Three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended after they allegedly tried to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani, who was killed in a gunbattle with security forces in north Kashmir, officials said Friday.

Some Kashmiri students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Thursday had gathered near Kennedy Hall in the campus to hold funeral prayers for Wani, following which the varsity staff and student union rushed to the spot and tried to stop them, AMU spokesperson and Professor Shafey Kidwai said Friday.

There was a heated exchange between the AMU Students' Union leaders and the Kashmiri students but they finally moved out of the area, Kidwai said, adding three Kashmiri students were suspended for trying to hold an unlawful gathering.

He said the university has made it clear that there was zero tolerance for any act which would even remotely be described as anti-national.

AMUSU president Faizul Hasan told PTI that he had always championed the cause of freedom of speech but any act of treason or terror was unacceptable to the union.

He said they will not allow the university to be defamed by any person who indulges in such unlawful activity.

Meanwhile, BJP lawmaker from Aligarh Satish Gautam said those trying to hold a prayer meeting for Wani at the AMU campus should be expelled.

The 27-year-old Wani, who quit PhD studies in Allied Geology and joined the militant ranks in January this year, was killed at Shatgund village in Handwara area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district during the encounter on Thursday.