A day after the police booked a case of sedition against the organisers of the protest against the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on Manasagangothri campus here, the focus turned to a woman protester who was reportedly holding a “Free Kashmir” placard at the demonstration.
The protester, identified as Nalini B., an alumna of the University of Mysore’s Department of Studies in Mass Communication and Journalism, reportedly claimed she was holding the placard during the demonstration on January 8. “Through the placard, I was trying to bring notice to the Internet shutdown imposed in the Valley,” said a statement attributed to her.
“From August 5, 2019, about 156 days since the abrogation of Article 370, there has been an Internet blockade which has resulted in the silencing of Kashmir. We haven’t heard from them for five months and two days. I wanted to remember and remind everyone that coming out to the streets to protest against the unconstitutional CAA, NRC, NPR is a privilege we have. We have been able to amplify our voices against it, while the Valley has been in darkness unable to voice out their dissent. This is all I meant by ‘Free Kashmir’. Nothing more, nothing less. None of the student bodies of the University of Mysore is responsible for the placard,” the woman’s statement reads.
Meanwhile, the University of Mysore Research Students’ Association and Dalita Vidyarthi Okkoota Sandesh, organisers of the protest, said in a statement, “We cannot be held responsible for an act committed by somebody we do not know.” The jurisdictional Jayalakshmipuram police said they were on the lookout for the woman. “We sent police personnel to her house, but did not find her there,” said an officer.
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