Greater Noida: Kashmiri student at Sharda University goes missing weeks after being assaulted
The police said Ahtisham Bilal’s last-known location was Srinagar.
A 17-year-old Kashmiri student of Sharda University in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida, who was assaulted during campus violence earlier this month, has been missing for the past three days, The Times of India reported on Wednesday.
The station house officer of Knowledge Park police station, Arvind Pathak, said a missing person complaint has been registered for Ahtisham Bilal, a first year bachelor’s degree student of medical imaging technology.
Following the complaint, the police tracked his phone. “Through the tracking, we found that he was still in Delhi till noon on Sunday, but at 2.30 pm his location changed to Srinagar,” Pathak told The Indian Express. “We found that he called up his father at 4.30 pm and told him that he was in Delhi. The phone has been switched off and untraceable after that.”
Bilal’s father Bilal Ahmad said his son had told him that he was going to Delhi for some sightseeing. “When I asked him what places he went to in Delhi, he said he would send me the pictures on WhatsApp once he reached his hostel campus,” he told the Hindustan Times. “That was the last time I spoke to him as when I called him again around 6 pm, his phone was switched off.”
Pathak said the police had checked with authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi to find out if Bilal had taken a flight to Srinagar.
Videos of Bilal being assaulted were shared widely on social media on October 4 amid rising tensions at the university following a scuffle between students from Afghanistan and local students. Bilal had joined the university barely 20 days before the incident.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to take note of the matter and ask authorities to track Bilal at the earliest. “Cause of grave concern that Ehtishaam Bilal, a student at Sharda University who was assaulted is reportedly missing,” she said on Twitter.