Omar ‘shamelessly obfuscating’ ouster of students: Rights group =>A human rights group Wednesday, while condemning the action against the Kashmir students, who have been booked for sedition in India’s Meerut region, said the chief minister Omar Abdullah is seeking ‘to once again shamelessly obfuscate the issue by suggesting that the students were misguided’. . A case of sedition and promoting enmity was filed against 67 Kashmir students, studying at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) for celebrating the victory of the Pakistani team in a cricket match against India on Sunday. “In addition to beating, the 67 students were suspended, ordered to vacate the university premises on short notice, and now face prosecution and an uncertain academic future. Other incidents, of harassment, violence and intimidation of Kashmir people, have been reported over the last few days in relation to the same cricket match,” the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society said. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has supported the university decision, and referred to the Kashmiri students as “misguided”, and has opposed the registration of a FIR for sedition. “The Meerut incident follows an established and decades old pattern of violence. In addition to the widely documented human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian State, killings, arrests and harassment have been an abiding feature of the Indian States relationship with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in various Indian cities,” noted human rights activists, Parvez Imroz, who heads the JKCCS, said. The Jammu and Kashmir government, through the Chief Minister, seeks to once again shamelessly obfuscate the issue by suggesting that the students were “misguided”. “Such statements only serve to strengthen an ethos of intolerance and criminalization of dissent. The government has consistently and historically made statements on various issues but with no consequent relief on the ground or to Kashmiris living in different states of India. In the instant case, the FIR registered must be immediately quashed, suspension revoked, disciplinary action, and if any necessary penal action, must be taken against the concerned University officials responsible, and all other students responsible for the intimidation, violence and harassment of the Kashmir students,” he said. Peaceful protests against human rights abuses are consistently met with violence. Conferences are disrupted, and individuals are targeted for their views,” he said. “More recently, on 13 February 2013, 16 students were beaten and detained in Dehradun. Their offence? A peaceful protest on university grounds against the hanging of Afzal Guru. This intolerance has often conveniently found its way into the framework of the law. Therefore, assertion of rights – political and legal – are immediately criminalized,” he said. The law of sedition in India has a history of misuse, the lawyer said. “This misuse has extended to issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir, notwithstanding the position of the Supreme Court that has limited the application of the law to cases where there exists a tendency or intention to cause disorder, or disturbance of law and order, with resort to violence,” he said. The Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and expression that must necessarily extend to the right to express a political sentiment. International law recognizes the fundamental right of peoples to freedoms in the widest sense – and includes civil, political and other rights. “But, the Indian State has, across issues including the political reality of Jammu and Kashmir, sought to choke all dissent or expression, and used violence, through the law or otherwise. Therefore, in the instant case, 67 students are considered to be seditious and a disturbance, whereas the intimidating and abusive fellow students, and the University management, will be considered to be blameless, and therefore protected,” he said.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:41:48 +0000
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