1,450 non-Kashmiri students sent back from NIT Srinagar: Govt

New Delhi, Apr 27: The Government today informed Parliament that NIT Srinagar authorities facilitated the return of 1,450 non-Kashmiri students to their native places in the wake of the unrest on the campus.

"NIT authorities facilitated the travel of 1,450 non-local students who wanted to leave the campus for their native places," Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

The NIT has the total student strength of over 2500. He said the incident pertains to the case, when at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar, clashes broke out on April 1 between outstation and local students following India's defeat to West Indies in the T-20 cricket World Cup semi-final on March 31.

"With intervention of local police and civil authorities normalcy was restored. However, on April 5 some non-local students marched towards the exit gate and were stopped from going out of the campus by police personnel resulting in a scuffle and police resorted to lathicharge and fired few tear gas shells in which 6-7 students were injured," he said.

Chaudhary said the state government has ordered a magisterial enquiry and the NIT has also constituted a fact finding committee to look into the matter. The Minister added that the Jammu and Kashmir government has established a 24X7 helpline at police station Nageen, Srinagar to address security concerns of the students. "Adequate security has been provided to the campus," he said.

PTI