Hiba Sheik, an 18-year-old hijab-wearing Muslim student has alleged a conspiracy against her, in a video message on Twitter, after she was booked by Karnataka police alongside six other Muslim students, over allegations of harassment.
Sheik, a student of Dayanand Pai-Sathish Pai Government First Grade College, was booked by the state police based on a complaint filed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) member Kavana Shetty alleging harassment on March 7, three days after her complaint against the students who harassed the hijab-clad girls and stopped them from writing their exams.
In the video, Hiba questions the authenticity of the FIR, and asks as to why it took Shetty three days to register a complaint if the incident occurred on the same day, she had registered her complaint.
Hiba also said that she has been receiving a barrage of hate and death threats from trolls online.
“Have been receiving threats on social media and have been framed over fake allegations but I would like to tell them that I’ll never give in. #HijabIsMyPride and I’ll continue to fight till the end,” she wrote in a tweet.
What led to the altercation:
The whole issue started when on March 3 a group of ABVP students led by Sai Sandesh entered the exam hall and forcefully took the answer sheets of some hijab-wearing Muslim girls, including Hiba’s, and asked them to get out of the class.
Hiba said that they were given permission by their principal to write the exams. “The Muslim girl students had been given permission by the principal to sit in the exams and a separate arrangement was made for them in the library,” Twocircles.net quoted Hiba, narrating the events that transpired on March 3.
“But after Sandesh objected, the lecturers evicted Muslim girls from exam halls,” she added.
The day after the incident, the students were barred from entering the college and writing their exams.
This was followed by an altercation between Hiba and the ABVP affiliated students at the college gates videos of which surfaced on social media.
Counter FIR by ABPV
Kavana Shetty, who lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against her along with six other students, was not even present at the site where the disagreement took place, The Wire quoted Sheikh, as she narrated her ordeal.
“Kavana was not present at the college gates on March 4. So how can she file an FIR against us, saying that we attacked her?” she said.
Kavana Shetty is affiliated with Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Hiba was booked by the Mangaluru North police station on March 7 for allegedly threatening fellow classmates affiliated with the right-wing student organisation ABVP on March 4.
In the FIR, Shetty alleges that Hiba along with six other Muslim students had threatened her at the college gates. The FIR alleges that Sheik threatened them saying, “Yesterday, you complained against us and did not allow us to write the exam. You people walk on our streets, right? We will see you there. Is this your father’s college? We also pay college fees and we will come to college.”
The hijab row:
The row has been raging in the state of Karnataka since December after Muslim students of Udupi Government Pre-University College were prohibited from attending classes wearing hijab.
Later, the students went on protest refusing to attend classes without hijab. The issue became a controversy and spread to other districts, leading to tension and even violence, in some parts of the state.
The Karnataka high court, while hearing petitions filed by the hijabi students had passed an interim order prohibiting students from donning religious outfits, including the hijab. However, students denied to comply with the order, and give up their hijab citing that it is a part of their religious obligation.
