The filing of sedition charges against 67 Kashmiri students by Meerut police for cheering the Pakistani cricket team has evoked strong reaction across the political and social spectrum in Jammu & Kashmir with the separatists calling for protests on Friday.

The students studying in a Meerut university are alleged to have celebrated Pakistan’s win over India in the Asia Cup match on Sunday. The students who have already returned here said that they were cheering better performing players.

“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.

“The students in the hostel were cheering when Indian team seemed poised to win the match. However, when the Pakistan all rounder Shahid Afridi hit consecutive sixes and Pakistan team won, some of the Kashmiri students also reacted by cheering Pakistan’s victory. The other students indulged in slogans and started hurling abuses at us. Some of the Kashmiri students were also roughed up,” Aijaz Ahmad, a student said.

“Next day we were packed in two buses and sent to Delhi. We had no money for travel and with difficulty we managed to reach the valley.”

Peoples Democratic Party patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene .

Mufti told Singh that “the arbitrary and unjustifiable action can make every Kashmiri especially student community suspect across the country.”

The Coaching Centres Association of Kashmir termed the police move “an unfortunate event that runs a risk of alienating an entire generation of Kashmiris.”

Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for a protest on Friday. The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yasin Malik also announced a protest.