A medical student got injured in a scuffle that broke out between two groups of students of the Government Medical College (GMC) in Jammu, said the police on Monday (May 15). The fight reportedly broke out late on Sunday night after a student allegedly shared a Whatsapp message praising the recently released movie The Kerala Story.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jammu Chandan Kohli said an investigation into the matter is underway. “There has been an incident of scuffle between some students and outsiders in GMC hostel Jammu. Cognisance of the matter has been taken and an investigation is going on,” the SSP said.
Meanwhile, after the Sunday night incident, several Hindu students came out to protest the discrimination they have been facing in the hostel. A Hindu student, who had witnessed the Sunday incident firsthand, told JK News that Kashmiri Muslims in the GMC hostel led a mob to attack the 1st year Hindu student for endorsing ‘The Kerala Story.’
He said that a first-year MBBS Hindu student uploaded a link to the movie The Kerala Story with the message ‘Must Watch’ on a Whatsapp group. A senior Muslim student, along with several others, allegedly confronted the first-year student after becoming enraged by the post. They were opposed to the message sent in the group. This resulted in an argument. Seeing the 1st year student being threatened, more Hindu students gathered to support him. The argument quickly escalated into a full-fledged brawl.
Further recalling what actually happened on Sunday night, the student said that some senior Kashmiri Muslim students were so outraged with the message that they accosted the first-year student who had written it in the hostel corridor and threatened him with death. The Kashmiri Muslim students threatened to kill him and his family if he kept supporting the film.
The Hindu student attempted to explain to the outraged Kashmiri Muslim students that people’s ideas can differ and that what he posted was entirely his point of view and belief and that they did not have to agree with it. However, the Kashmiri Muslim students refused to listen to him. They began mercilessly beating him up in the hostel corridor.
When some senior Hindu students saw the 1st year student being ruthlessly beaten by 15-20 Kashmiri Muslim students, they rushed to his aid. They attempted to intervene, but the Kashmiri students began beating them up as well. Within no time, up to 100 to 150 Kashmiri Muslims arrived and began mercilessly beating the Hindu students.
The Hindu student who witnessed the entire incident further told JK News that the mob led by the Kashmiri Muslim students raised slogans like ‘Nara-e-Takbeer’, ‘Azadi’ and ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ while thrashing the Hindu students. He said that the attack on the Hindu students was so brutal that for a moment they thought they would all be lynched to death.
Recalling how one junior Muslim student brutally assaulted a senior Hindu student with a glass bottle on his head, the eyewitness said that the mob brought kadas, rods and other weapons with them which they at first used to attack the Hindu students and then they started attacking their own people with those weapons to play the victim.
“They were the ones who attacked us, and now they are playing the victim, accusing us of attacking them,” the Hindu student said to the YouTube news channel, asserting that the Kashmiri Muslim students had hit their own members in order to discredit the Hindu students.
The eyewitness also told the media outlet that they had video recordings and screenshots of messages to confirm what happened in the GMC hostel on Sunday night.
Media spins the attack by Kashmiri Muslims in GMC hostel in Jammu
Notably, several mainstream leftist media outlets also reported the incident but obviously, they had a different version to tell where the Hindu student was portrayed as an aggressor for ‘provoking’ others by praising The Kerala Story, a movie that seeks to shed light on the dark underbelly of rampant Islamism underway in Kerala.
For example, Deccan Herald published a report based on a news copy circulated by the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that said that “the student, who had objected to the sharing of the link, was later confronted and assaulted inside the hostel, leading to a scuffle as more and more students along with some outsiders joined the ruckus.”
It further said that the students alleged that members of a right-wing group were brought into the hostel from outside, who shouted religious slogans and attacked one of the students with a sharp-edged object, injuring him in the head.
This is the same version that was shared by outlets like Tribune, Business Standard, Devdiscourse, etc.
Opposition leaders also descended on Twitter to use the narrative spun by these media outlets to blame the scuffle on the aggrieved party while portraying the aggressors as victims.
“Very distressing images of gunda elements targeting Kashmiri students in Jammu. @JmuKmrPolice must take cognisance of this & ensure those responsible are brought to book. @OfficeOfLGJandK must ensure this is done in a time-bound manner & reassure students that their safety will not be compromised at the alter of politics,” the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah tweeted while sharing a post shared by the national convenor of the Jammu and Kashmir student association, which depicted the Muslim students’ version of the incident.
Very distressing images of gunda elements targeting Kashmiri students in Jammu. @JmuKmrPolice must take cognisance of this & ensure those responsible are brought to book. @OfficeOfLGJandK must ensure this is done in a time-bound manner & reassure students that their safety will… https://t.co/Fyker70jZ5
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 15, 2023
“Shocking that GOI (Government of India) promotes & encourages violence through movies stoking communal fires. The blood of innocents is being spilled to quench the BJP’s insatiable thirst for petty electoral dividends. Request @OfficeOfLGJandK ji to take cognisance & punish the culprits,” PDP chief and former CM of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti was also seen toeing a similar line, blaming BJP for promoting violence.
Shocking that GOI promotes & encourages violence through movies stoking communal fires. The blood of innocents is being spilled to quench BJPs insatiable thirst for petty electoral dividends. Request @OfficeOfLGJandK ji to take cognisance & punish the culprits. https://t.co/HwoofvhahF
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) May 15, 2023
Meanwhile, Principal GMC Shashi Sudhan Sharma visited the protesting students and assured them that action will be taken as per the law of the land.
“There was a scuffle in the boy’s hostel and five students suffered minor injuries. Four of them were discharged immediately, while one of them who had received stitches in the head, is being discharged within two hours,” Sharma, who visited the emergency ward to enquire about the injured student’s health, told reporters.
“A WhatsApp message worked as instigation but the situation is well under control (now). The interference of some medicos who have left the institute and some others were recorded,” she said, adding an FIR has already been lodged and the disciplinary committee is doing its job.
