4 AMU scholars who fled varsity traced to their homes in Valley
Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, March 21
The four PhD scholars who had gone missing from a health centre at Aligarh Muslim University, where they were put under quarantine after returning from foreign travel, have been traced by the authorities in Kashmir to their respective homes and put under observation.
CMO’s letter goes viral
The escape of the four scholars, who hail from Kashmir, came to light on Friday when a letter by the Chief Medical Officer of the AMU health centre Shariq Aqeel went viral on the social media in which he had taken up the matter with the university authorities.
As the letter went viral and an alert was sounded in Kashmir, all four were located to their homes in Kashmir by the authorities and put under quarantine and medical supervision in their respective districts.
The escape of the four scholars, who hail from Kashmir, came to light on Friday when a letter by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the AMU health centre Shariq Aqeel went viral on the social media in which he had taken up the matter with the university authorities.
In the letter, the CMO had said the four PhD scholars were under quarantine at the health centre after their return from the Middle East and Taiwan. He said they fled the isolation wards without informing the medical practitioners or authorities there.
As the letter went viral and an alert was sounded in Kashmir, all four were located to their homes in Kashmir by the authorities and put under quarantine and medical supervision in their respective districts.
The four have been identified as Mohammad Iqbal Rather, Azad Ahmad Wani, both from Wagoor village in Baramulla district, Bilal Ahmad Rather from Warpora in Sopore and Zahoor Ahmad Rather from Sirhama in Anantnag. “They were identified last night and shifted today into quarantine,” said Abdul Qayoom, Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla.
Sources said the two scholars from Wagoora were first taken to Primary Health Centre, Kreeri, from where they were to be taken to the quarantine centre at Baramulla Degree College Hospital.
The police in Anantnag also said the scholar from Sirhama village had been traced and put under observation. Azad, Bilal and Iqbal had travelled to the UAE between March 4 and 9 and were put under quarantine at the AMU health centre on March 18. Zahoor had visited Taiwan from March 14 to 15 and was shifted to the university quarantine centre on March 19 on his return. However, all of them went missing from there on March 19.
Scholar takes to FB
Before being traced to his village by the authorities, Iqbal had posted pictures of the AMU isolation ward, claiming that they were asked to be quarantined after 12 days after their return from the UAE. He further wrote that at the Isolation ward, they were forced to share space with the travellers from Iran, China and Taiwan. He wrote the CMO had written the letter about their escape from the isolation ward as he had posted the pictures from the ward to Union HRD ministry to highlight the shortcomings.
