NIT students protest in Delhi, demand shifting of campus from Srinagar

NEW DELHI: A group of NIT students today staged a protest at Jantar Mantar here demanding shifting of their campus from Srinagar after clashes in the institute between local and outstation students.

The students, who held a protest in Jammu yesterday, gathered at Jantar Mantar this morning to raise their demands.

"We want the HRD ministry to pay attention to our demand of shifting the campus out of Srinagar and accountability to be fixed for the police action on students," a protesting student said.

Another student said, "We had raised our demands with the HRD officials who had visited the campus but they have been turned down. We also want withdrawal of all cases against non Kashmiri students of NIT and full security to them".

Tension started brewing inside the NIT campus, located at the banks of famous Dal lake, on March 31 after India lost to West Indies in semi-final in the T-20 cricket tournament prompting some local students to rejoice and burst crackers. This led to protest by outstation students resulting in clashes.

The situation inside the campus has been volatile since then and the authorities had posted personnel from Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB). The local police was manning the main gate of the institute.

Expressing a sense of insecurity in the campus, a group of outstation students have left the institute after the HRD ministry gave them an option of appearing for the exams later.

HRD had sent a three-member team to campus last week to take stock of situation and held talks with the agitating students to defuse the tension. The team will be in Srinagar till the ongoing exams are concluded.