October 16, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 9, 1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 15: The police on Tuesday arrested the president and two other members of the National Students Federation (NSF) during a clash between the two sides outside the old campus of the AJK University in connection with the Mangla Dam upraising project, witnesses and police said.

The hardline organization, which advocates complete independence of Kashmir, had stated a demonstration for the release of anti-Mangla Dam extension activists who were detained in Mirpur on Sept 30 when President Gen Pervez Musharraf had visited the town to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the controversial project.

According to witnesses, when the NSF activists tried to block the main road outside the old campus by laying some tyres and a signboard, the police, who were already present around the spot in good number to meet any eventuality, immediately resorted to use of batons to disperse them.

The demonstrators ran inside the campus to save themselves from lathi-charge and pelted stones from there on the law enforcement agencies, who retaliated with teargas shelling, witnesses said.

The police fired at least 25 teargas shells besides trespassing on the varsity premises where they beat and injured many of the demonstrators, said the witnesses, adding the shells caused great inconvenience to girl students who were taking classes in different disciplines.

Police arrested NSF president Shujaat Kazmi and two others, identified as Mohammad Hussain and Ali Zaman under different sections of the penal code and detained them in the city police station.

In a press note, Muzaffarabad deputy commissioner Dr Mahamood ul Hassan Raja said the NSF activists were holding demonstrations for the past two weeks for the release of the people detained in Mirpur and as long as they remained peaceful, the administration did not create any hurdle in their programmes.

“But, today they tried to create lawlessness due to which we had to take some action,” he said.

The DC claimed that one of the NSF activists also fired a magazine on the police force from inside the varsity premises, but fortunately no one was hurt.

However, he added that an ASI and a constable had received wounds by the stone-pelting.

A spokesman for the NSF alleged that the police had ruthlessly tortured and critically injured the group’s president.

The administration officials also held a meeting on Tuesday evening at the DC office to tackle the situation emerging out of the arrests of the NSF activists.