JNU fire reaches Harvard University; students demand Kanhaiya's release

A group of students on Thursday gathered in Harvard Square to lodge their protest. They have demanded the immediate release of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

Representational image / AP

New Delhi: The students of the famed Harvard University in the United States have joined the JNU protests to free student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been held on charges of sedation for participating in an anti-India demonstration.

A group of students on Thursday gathered in Harvard Square to lodge their protest. They have demanded the immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar.

Kumar was detained by Delhi Police over his alleged anti-national comments.

The protesting students have faulted the Indian government for using the powerful sedition law against some of them.

“We gathered basically because all of us believe that freedom of speech and dialogue is essential and should be respected. And that was being threatened by the present government,” the Quint quoted Harvard University student Shravya Mallavarapu as saying.

Besides JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, more than a dozen others are also on police’s radar and have so far managed to evade arrest.

The investigators have claimed to have found a video footage in which Kanhaiya and others were allegedly seen raising slogans which were pro-Afzal Guru, the 2001 Parliament attack convict.

The demonstrations were first held in the JNU campus on February 9.