Hijab row: Pre-university colleges in Karnataka to reopen from Feb 16

Colleges were shut due to controversy over hijab. The Hijab protests in the southern state began in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. 

During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab. Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district.

The pre-university education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges.

However, protests from Muslim girls forced the state to shut schools and colleges for almost a week. 

Today, high schools were reopened amid prohibitory orders in Udupi and sensitive areas of Dakshina Kannada and Bengaluru. Udupi had witnessed violence and tension last week.

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been imposed in sensitive areas in the said districts. In Udupi district, all the schools that reopened witnessed normal attendance, PTI reported citing sources from the Education Department. 

Muslim girl students who reached the school campuses wearing hijabs, and removed them before entering classes. The district administration has imposed Section 144 of CrPC around 200-metre radius of all high schools in the district from Monday till February 19 to maintain peace. 

Udupi Tahsildar Pradeep Kurudekar, who visited a few schools, said Muslim students were abiding by the High Court’s interim order by removing hijabs before entering classes.

With inputs from agencies