Sedition Charges on those Celebrating Pakistan’s Victory: Yogi Adityanath

Three Kashmiri students were arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Agra yesterday for allegedly celebrating Pakistan's win over India in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

sedition
File Photo: Yogi Adityanath

Those celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in the recent T20 cricket world cup match will face sedition charges, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserted on Thursday.

Three Kashmiri students were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra yesterday for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s win over India in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

All three are engineering students at the Raja Balwant Singh College in Agra. Arsheed Yousuf and Inayat Altaf Sheikh are in their third year of college, and Showkat Ahmed Ganai is in his fourth.

They have been charged with promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, and cyber-terrorism. They may also face sedition charges, indicated a tweet from the Chief Minister’s office.

Those celebrating Pakistan’s win will be charged with sedition, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s office tweeted this morning.

The chief minister made the remarks in an interview with a Hindi publication, which was shared by the official Twitter handle of his office. His comments come a day after three engineering students from Kashmir were arrested in Agra for raising anti-national slogans following Pakistan’s big win.

The administration of Raja Balwant Singh Engineering Technical College, which suspended the three students on Monday, announced that the college would be shut down until action is taken against those who forcibly entered the college on Tuesday demanding the arrest of the Kashmiri students.

The three were booked under IPC Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (1)(B) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public), and 66-F of the Information Technology Act for allegedly sending WhatsApp messages “against the country” after Sunday’s match.

So far, the UP police have booked a total of seven people across five districts for allegedly raising Pro-Pak slogans or celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in the T20 Cricket World Cup.

Activists led by Gaurav Rajawat of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), BJP’s youth wing, had reached the college campus in Bichpuri claiming that slogans supporting Pakistan were allegedly being raised in the college. They accused the college of “sheltering traitors”. The BJYM leader then filed a complaint against the Kashmiri students after which they were arrested.

Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has criticised the crackdown on Kashmiri students both within and outside the state and called for the immediate release of the arrested students. “Situation in J&K after two years of suppression should’ve been an eye-opener for GOI & lead to course correction.BJPs pseudo patriotism disregards the idea of India,” she said in a tweet.

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