“Braid chopping” fear has reached the walled and secured environs of the National Institute of Technology, where the girl hostellers have been told to say inside the hostels.
A few hostellers who spoke to Greater Kashmir said the hostel gates normally closed at 11:30 pm. But after the “braid chopping” incidents across the Valley, the authorities close the gates in the late afternoon and students are not allowed to move out.
“This has been happening for the past four days. But the administration doesn’t tell us anything,” said a student who hails from Baramulla.
The student said fear gripped the students on Wednesday when all girls were asked to assemble in a common hall.
“It was around 9:30 pm that our female classmates informed us that private security guards and several officials were frisking every room of their hostel,” the student said.
Next day, the residents living in the neighbourhood demonstrated against chopping. The students said the demonstrators feared that a braid chopper had taken shelter inside the NIT campus.
“The protesters tried to enter the campus but our gate keepers stopped them. The police dispersed the mob,” they said.
From that day the students have not been allowed to move outside the campus in the late afternoon.
The NIT campus has a security picket at the entrance gate. There are security guards around hostels as well. However, the fear is pervasive and intensified by the fact that the majority of non-local students have gone for Diwali vacations, leaving a small number of local students inside the campus.
Director NIT Srinagar Manoj Singh Gaur was not available for his comments.
Security officer NIT said some braid chopping incidents took place in the vicinity of the campus, which might have scared the students.
