Karnataka hijab row: 10 protesting Muslim girls booked for violating section 144 in Tumkur

A group of girl students who were demanding that they be allowed to enter their college wearing hijab in Karnataka’s Tumakuru have been charged with unlawful assembly and disobeying an order promulgated by a public servant, Indian Express reported.

The case against 10-15 “unknown” girl students was filed after a complaint was logged by the principal of Empress Government Pre-University College in Tumakuru, around 70 km from Bengaluru.

On Thursday, the police barred the students from entering the college campus and told that they would be permitted entry only if they take off their hijab. Some of the students, however, demanded answers from college officials about why they were not being allowed inside.

As per the principal’s complaint, 10-15 students wearing hijab demanded entry into the college, and “disrupted” routine activities of the college.

The police had implemented prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 within 200 metres of the college campus as a preventive measure.

Meanwhile, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi, which had seen slogan-shouting between different groups of students over the hijab controversy, reopened on Friday after being shut for 10 days. The college was reopened amid tight police security as practical examinations were scheduled for pre-university students, authorities said. Students wearing head scarfs and hijab were not permitted inside the college.