Aligarh Muslim University was tense after authorities prevented a group of students from Kashmir from holding a prayer meet for former university student and Hizbul Mujahideen militant Mannan Wani. He was killed on Thursday. (Photo: PTI file)

Two students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) were today booked for sedition by the Uttar Pradesh Police. Both accused, Wasim Ayub Malik and Abdul Mir hail from Jammu and Kashmir. They were among the students of the AMU who had planned to hold a prayer meeting for a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, killed in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

The police slapped charges under IPC Section 124A (Sedition) and other relevant provisions of the law against these two named and other unnamed accused. The case was registered after a video surfaced showing the accused raising Azadi slogans.

Section 124A says, whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the government established by law in India may be punished with life imprisonment.

Earlier, three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended after they allegedly tried to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen militant Manan Bashir Wani. AMU spokesperson and Professor Shafey Kidwai said that some Kashmiri students on Thursday had gathered near Kennedy Hall in the campus to hold funeral prayers for Wani.

The varsity staff and student union rushed to the spot and tried to stop them. There was a heated exchange between the AMU Students' Union leaders and the Kashmiri students but they finally moved out of the area, Kidwai said.

The three students were suspended for trying to hold an unlawful gathering. He said the university has made it clear that there was zero tolerance for any act which would even remotely be described as anti-national.

AMUSU president Faizul Hasan said that he had always championed the cause of freedom of speech but any act of treason or terror was unacceptable to the union. He said they will not allow the university to be defamed by any person who indulges in such unlawful activity.

Meanwhile, BJP lawmaker from Aligarh Satish Gautam said those trying to hold a prayer meeting for Wani at the AMU campus should be expelled.

The 27-year-old Wani, who quit PhD studies in Allied Geology and joined the militant ranks in January this year, was killed at Shatgund village in Handwara area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district during the encounter on Thursday.

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