Political leaders seek dropping of UAPA charges against 7 students

Srinagar, Nov 28 : Several political leaders today demanded dropping of UAPA charges against seven students “for cheering for the winning team during the ICC Cricket World Cup final match.”

PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti urged the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene into the matter and get the UAPA charges dropped against the students. She said the UAPA charges can ruin their career. Mehbooba told reporters that if prime minister during the would cup final can cheer for the winning team, what is wrong if others do so. “Government must try to win the hearts of people rather than taking such strict actions,”she said.

Former union minister Prof Saifuddin Soz in a statement said that he has a feeling that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has gone wrong in arresting seven Kashmiri students who had cheered for a section of the cricketers of their choice.

“While I recognize that the government has long hands to punish people for what it considers to be wrong but, it is not always that actions will be considered lawful. In the instant case, arresting seven students for cheering for a particular group of cricketers is not lawful, at all. The government’s action cannot be supported by any court of law in India,” Soz said.

He stated that if the J&K Administration found that the cheering by the students for a particular batch of cricketers was not to its taste, it could have asked the police to tender any kind of advice, under the circumstances. “But, then, arresting these students for their cheers is entirely unlawful. It will get the government only bad publicity for its illegal action,”the former union minister said.

National Conference expressed dismay over charging seven university students with a severe Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly cheering for the winning team during the ICC Cricket World Cup final.