AP, Srinagar :Dozens of Muslim students from the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir were expelled from their university and briefly threatened with sedition charges because they cheered for the Pakistani cricket team during a televised match against archrival India, police said Thursday, while the Indian state’s elected leader called for leniency.Akhilesh Yadav, chief minister of northern Uttar Pradesh state, said he told state officials that such a serious charge as sedition, which carries a possible life sentence, should be not be used because the students probably didn’t understand the gravity of their actions.State Home Secretary A.K.Gupta said plans to impose the sedition charges were dropped late Thursday.Yadav’s statement in an interview with the New Delhi Television news channel came amid widespread outrage over the students’ expulsion in the Indian portion of Kashmir, a divided Himalayan territory that both countries claim.Earlier Thursday, authorities tried to track down the 66 students for questioning to determine whether sedition charges were appropriate, police officer N.K.S. Chauhan said.Love of cricket – a legacy of Britain’s long colonial role of South Asia – is one of the few things that unites Pakistan and India, despite a long history of animosity that has fueled three wars since the subcontinent’s bloody partition in 1947.But the fracas over Sunday’s match – which Pakistan won – shows how easily passions are inflamed over predominantly Muslim Kashmir. Insurgents have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with Pakistan since 1989.
