NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – – A group of Kashmiri university students who cheered for Pakistan during a cricket match against India have been charged with disturbing communal harmony, police in India’s Uttar Pradesh state said yesterday.
Cricket games between rivals India and Pakistan tend to be high-voltage events, played out in a charged atmosphere with millions of people watching on television.
Tensions rose as students gathered in the hostel of private university in the Uttar Pradesh town of Meerut to watch Pakistan beat India in a close game in the final stages of the Asia Cup match in Bangladesh on Sunday.
While one set of students supported the Indian national team, another group from Kashmir – a border state wracked by an armed revolt against Indian rule that has led to a brittle peace – was rooting for the Pakistani team.
“As soon as the match ended, the Indian students chased us. We hid in our rooms. They abused us and threw and stones at our rooms and broke our laptops.
They said Kashmiris and Pakistanis should leave,” one of the students, Ghulzar Ahmad, said.
