PDP speak in different voices on the student protests
Javaid Ahmed
Srinagar: As the student protests are only increasing despite the government has closed all the educational institutions like colleges and universities, PDP is speaking in different voices of how to handle such protests especially of girl students.
PDP has condemned the police action on April 15 on the students of Degree College Pulwama and has demanded probe into this incident. Party General Secretary Nizam-ud-Din Bhat who is regarded to be close to Mufti family has said that appropriate action should be taken against cops for using force against students in Pulwama.
Opposition National Conference has said that Mehbooba Government has declared open war against the students and has not even spared the girl students. Calling the statement of Nizam-ud-Din Bhat as shedding crocodile tears, opposition parties said that they were in government and whom they are condemning in their statements. Opposition parties said that sometimes PDP forgets that their leader is not only Chief Minister, but also Home Minister of J&K State.
PDP has described the outrage of students in different parts of Kashmir as natural reaction to the excessive use of force by police at Pulwama Degree College. The State Cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Mehbooba has urged parents and civil society to counsel the youth not to participate in the protests. The State Cabinet remained silent on the issue of whether they were going to fix the responsibility in police and take action against them for using brute force against youth in general and against students in particular.
While the PDP condemned the use of force inside the Pulwama College, their government attached Professor Abdul Hameed Sheikh, who resisted the entry of police inside the college campus and told them to kill him before they will enter and beat students. The attaching of college principal has shown the intentions of the government that they will not proceed against police who thrashed all students and injured more than 60 of them some of them battling for lives in the hospitals.
