Jammu: Students in the Jammu University alleged that they were stopped from celebrating Surgical Strike Day on September 29 to mark the second anniversary of the Indian Army's strike against terror cells across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

On September 19, the University Grants Commission directed universities and higher education institutions across the country to observe ‘Surgical Strike Day’. The move had created a furore, with critics saying it was the BJP's attempt to milk the Army’s action for political gain. 

Sources said when students led by Saket Rathore went to the Dean, Student Welfare, Jammu University, asking for a permission to conduct a programme to commemorate the Army strike, senior university officials denied permission.

Speaking to MyNation, Rathore alleged that not only was he denied permission to organise the programme, senior authorities asked him the validity of the operation conducted by the Army.

Rathore added that officials told him not to dedicate the programme to surgical strikes as it may lead to communal tensions.

Anguished over the decision, students staged a protest and even tried to stop an ongoing event. In the past, students said the university officials have discouraged them along similar lines. They were even stopped to hold a seminar on illegal settlements of Rohingyas.

When MyNation contacted university officials, they denied the charges. Parmeshwari Sharma, Dean Student Welfare, said: “We asked them not to hold a programme on September 29 as it is a holiday. We advised them to organise the programme on some other day. But now we are organising it on the same day. We never questioned them on the validity of the surgical strike, these are mere allegations.”