Centre reviews security in J&K, assures students

The Centre on Wednesday reviewed the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir even as students, who have left the Srinagar NIT campus for now following clashes between local and outstation students, met Union home minister Rajnath Singh and placed various demands, including shifting the campus out of Srinagar.

The home minister is understood to have assured the aggrieved students of security on the campus and asked them to concentrate on their studies, official sources said.

Dismissing the demand to shift the NIT campus, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti made it clear on Tuesday that no such demand will be met. Central paramilitary forces have been deployed in the campus while the local police is manning the main gate of the institute.

Earlier in the day, the chief minister, who was in the capital to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sought to dispel reports about any animosity between local and outstation students at NIT and said her government will ensure security of all students studying in the Valley.

“These are our children. It is our job to provide them security. I am confident they will come back, Kashmir is their home,” Ms Mufti said.

“These students have been living there for years. We can’t separate people over an incident,” Ms Mufti said.

Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, who separately met Ms Mufti said the issue of the NIT students also cropped up and the CM said every step will be taken to ensure that students are provided safety and security.

Meanwhile, during the meeting between the state government officials and the MHA brass, plans to fast-track pending proposals, including early rehabilitation of displaced Pandits, also came up for discussion even as there was brainstorming over the prevailing security situation in the state and how to improve it further.

The security situation was also reviewed in the backdrop of curfew-like restrictions imposed in parts of Srinagar and Kupwara districts in Jammu and Kashmir following tension over the killing of three persons.