Pulwama Terror Attack: Kashmiri student suspended over controversial Facebook post

A Kashmiri student has been suspended by his college in Greater Noida for allegedly posting controversial remarks on Facebook about the Pulwama terror attack, officials said on Sunday. Ishfaq Ahmad Khoja, a final year MBA student of IIMT College of Engineering, has claimed that the remarks, which were posted on Friday, were made through a fake profile bearing his photo, they said.

Khoja, who is in his hometown Kupwara since a few days due to college holidays, was asked by the college management to file a complaint with the local police and share a copy of the FIR with it, but he has not been able to do so, Chief Proctor Sanjay Pachauri said.

"On February 16, 2019 you submitted that your Facebook ID was hacked for use of anti-national activity, whereby you were directed to lodge an FIR at your concerned police station and send a copy to us," the college said in a letter to Khoja on Friday.

"You have failed to submit the copy of FIR in support of your statement," it stated. "The aforesaid anti-national act is serious and a gross misconduct, which is intolerable by IIMT Group of Colleges, therefore you are being suspended from college with immediate effect (i.e. 16.02.2019) till further order," it added.

Pachauri said the student has been directed to appear with supportive evidence before the head of his department within seven working days to depose before an inquiry committee set up by the college. "The student has been suspended due to the criticism of the act allegedly committed by him," Pachauri told PTI.

However, he said, it was difficult to send any documents as the internet services had been suspended in Kashmir. "That is why he has been given seven days time to produce the copy of FIR or complaint through proper channel," he added.

The chief proctor said Khoja has told college officials that he has been going to the local police station but the FIR could not be lodged. "He had sent the receiving of his complaint but that was without any police stamp, hence it could not be considered authentic," Pachauri said.

Meanwhile, the college management has brought the matter to the notice of local and regional police and security officials, he added. Police said on Saturday that it was found during investigation that the controversial post was made using a fake profile of Khoja and the matter had been taken up with their counterparts in Kupwara.