Students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University were ejected and threatened with sedition charges by the police

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Dozens of students from Indian-administered Kashmir were ejected from university and threatened with sedition charges for cheering Pakistan's victory over India in a cricket match.

Police have been investigating the students after a complaint from university officials in the northern city of Meerut, in Uttar Pradesh, over celebrations following Pakistan's win in Sunday's Asia Cup clash.

The students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) have been suspended and were escorted from campus following the match due to concerns about violence with other Indian students, university sources said.

"The SVSU administration on Wednesday submitted a written complaint against unknown persons for indulging in anti-national activities and creating a ruckus on the university campus," Meerut police chief Omkar Singh said. "We have registered a case and the probe is on. If evidence is established against the accused, there is a set legal procedure to be followed in such cases. The law will take its own course."

Police initially planned to charge the students with the more serious crime of sedition, which can earn a life term, but that was dropped after protests from Kashmiri leaders including the state's chief minister.

The minister, Omar Abdullah, said on Twitter: "Sedition charge against Kashmiri students is an unacceptably harsh punishment that will ruin their futures & will further alienate them. I believe what the students did was wrong & misguided but they certainly didn't deserve to have charges of sedition slapped against them."

The trouble began when the students were watching the match on television in the university's community hall. Some of the students were accused of chanting "Pakistan Zindabad" (hail Pakistan), a university official said on condition of anonymity.

In 2012, an anti-government cartoonist was arrested in another sedition case, raising concerns about limits on freedom of speech.

Prosecutors later dropped the charge against the cartoonist, whose online drawings included the national parliament depicted as a huge toilet bowl, a comment against corruption.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but each claims it in full. They have fought two wars since 1947 over the northern Himalayan territory.

Since 1989 Indian forces have been fighting militant groups seeking independence or the merger of the territory with Pakistan, with repressive policing and human rights abuses feeding into local anti-India resentment.

Many Kashmiris associate more with Pakistan, a Muslim-majority Islamic republic, than with Hindu-majority India which is officially secular.