Jamia bans Safoora Zargar from entering university campus
NEW DELHI,SEPT 17 : Jamia Milia Islamia has banned research scholar and activist Safoora Zargar from entering the university campus. The development comes days after MPhil admission was cancelled on grounds of non-submission of dissertation, the varsity had said.
In an office order, protests and marches organised by Zargar were cited as the reason for banning her from the campus.
“It has been observed that Ms. Safoora Zargar (ex student) has been involved in organizing agitations, protests and marches on the campus against the irrelevant and objectionable issues to disturb the peaceful academic environment with few students who are mostly outsiders. She is instigating innocent students of the University and trying to use the University platform for her malafide political agenda alongwith some other students. Further, she is hampering the normal functioning of the institution. In view of above, the Competent Authority, for maintaining peaceful academic environment across the campus, has approved campus on ex-student Ms. Safoora Zargar with immediate effect,” the office order read.
Safoora Zargar was booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, in April 2020 in connection with the Delhi riots. She was granted bail on humanitarian grounds in June 2020 as she was pregnant at the time.
Jamia Millia Islamia administration has issued show-cause notices to several students for participating in protests against Safoora Zargar’s de-enrollment from the university.
The university proctor in a written order stated that the participation of multiple students in protests in support of Zargar ‘is a gross violation of Jamia’s rules and regulations, and viewed separately by the Jamia authorities’.
After Zargar was removed as a student on 29 August, she and other Jamia students had been participating in protests demanding that she be re-admitted and given extension to submit her thesis.
-PTI
