Hyderabad: Three Kashmiri youth were arrested by Hyderabad police for allegedly not standing up when the national anthem was being played at a cinema hall on Saturday. They were identified as Zamingul, Omer Faiz Luney and Mudabir Shabbir, who are currently students in an engineering college near Hyderabad. The incident took place at the Mantra mall—which falls under Rajendra Nagar police station—where they had gone to watch a movie in the afternoon.

According to P.V. Padmaja, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Shamshabad zone, the incident took place after the trio had gone to watch the 3.50p.m. show of the movie ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ at the Mantra mall. She stated that the Rajendra Nagar police received a complaint later in the evening from the mall’s management, after which a case was registered against them under section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour act.

Though the complainant in the case is the mall’s management, it has come to light that information about the students not standing up during the national anthem was passed to the local police by a senior police officer who was also present in the theatre. This was confirmed by sub-inspector N. Shiva Prasad, the investigating officer. He, however, refused to divulge his name.

Amjadullah Khan, chief of the Majilis-Bachao-Tehreek (MBT) party, said, “I had sent some of my party workers to meet the students. The trio told them that they had in fact stood up for the anthem. This can be verified by CCTV cameras inside," he alleged. Khan questioned as to why the mall’s management was made a complainant, if it was the senior police officer who had informed the local police.

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