The Karnataka police has arrested three Kashmiri students for assaulting a college-mate over his Facebook post condemning the Pulwama suicide bomber, reports Deccan Herald.
According to the report, all of them have been booked for sedition. The students - Gowhar Mushtaq, 21, from Baramulla; Haris Manzoor, 19, and Zakir Maqbool, 23, both from Kupwara - were arrested by the Surya Nagara police on Saturday (16 February) night.
Both, Mushtaq and Manzoor, are from the Spurthy Institute of Nursing, located at Marasur Gate, Anekal Main Road on the outskirts of Bengaluru while Maqbool is a fourth-year student at the Chinai College of Nursing in Bommanahalli.
As per the report, the students allegedly took objection to a Facebook post by Koushik Debnath, a third-year student of general nursing at the college. In his post Debnath had reportedly condemned the suicide bomber and supported the Indian Army.
The Kashmiri students on 15 February attacked Debnath and their non-Kashmiri mates at the college mess, the police said. Following this the principal, Babu D, approached the police that arrested the students, seized their mobile phones and booked them under IPC’s section 124A (sedition), 153A, 323, 504 and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
A police officer reportedly said that the students have confessed to posting comments on Facebook in support of Kashmir and Pakistan. They have been remanded to judicial custody by a court.