Aligarh Muslim University | Photo Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Kashmiri students at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have threatened to leave for their homes if sedition charges against three of them are not dropped. Sajjad Rathar, former vice president of the AMU students'union, in a letter to the Vice Chancellor has said that "If this vilification does not stop, more than 1,200 Kashmiri students will leave for their homes in the Kashmir Valley on October 17 as the last option."

The row erupted after some students of AMU reportedly gathered near the Kennedy Hall on the campus to hold prayer meetings for Manan Bashir Wani, a 27-year-old PhD student who had quit the university to join militant ranks in the Valley. On Thursday, Wani was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Shatgund village in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

The police took action against three students after a video surfaced, showing the students raising anti-India slogans. "Police have filed an FIR against Wasim Malik, Abdul Mir, and one unnamed person. They have been identified on the basis of a video recording," Senior Superintendent of Police Ajai Sahni was quoted as saying by PTI.

The students, who gathered in large numbers outside the university Proctor's office, however, denied that any such meeting was held at the university campus. "The option of holding Namaaz-e-Janaza (prayer meeting) in absentia was dropped after the AMU authorities did not give the permission."

"If no prayer meeting was held as confirmed by all official agencies, the slapping a case of sedition against three Kashmiri students is simply a vendetta, harassment, and denial of justice," Rathar said. "There is zero tolerance for any anti-national activity on AMU campus... no innocent would be framed," AMU spokesman Shafay Kidwai was quoted as saying by PTI.