Scores of nursing students on Saturday staged protests in this capital city seeking the release of a co-student arrested by police from Jhajjar Kotli area of Reasi, where three militants were killed with a fierce gunfight with government forces on Thursday.Reports reaching news gathering agency Global News Service (GNS) said that scores of nursing students of SKIMS this afternoon converged at press colony and staged demonstrations against the arrest of their co-student on charges of militancy.Carrying placards and banners and shouting slogans, the protesters were demanding the release of their co-student Iqbal Ahmad Rather of Pakherpora area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district, who was arrested on Wednesday when after 3 Jaish militants attacked a CRPF checkpoint at Jhajjar Kotli and escaped.The protesters said that Iqbal was a B. Sc 4th year student of SKIMS, not a tuck conductor, as claimed by the police.
They said Iqbal was innocent and that police was implicating him in a fake case“Iqbal had gone to Jammu to fix an appointment with a doctor for his ailing father. He is not even remotely connected with militants,” Shaila, a protesting student told GNS.Iqbal, Shaila said is the caretaker of his father, a cancer patient and seven of his sisters.Like Shaila, other protesters sought the immediate release of the arrested student so that his career is not ruined.“We don’t know if he was arrested from Jhajjar Kotli or was he arrested from any other place and taken to the encounter spot. We want an independent probe leading to his illegal arrest,” Nusrat, another student said.The protesting students pledged to continue the protests until the arrested student is not released. The protesting students also sought the intervention of Governor in seeking Iqbal’s release. (GNS)