Minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh, on Wednesday said that a team from the HRD ministry would visit National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar today to assess the situation arising from the police action against students, many of whom have received serious injuries.

Singh posted on his Facebook page that he has already spoken to chief minister Mehbooba Mufti about the violent incidents in the institute, which has led to the premier institute’s closure. He also claimed to have personally spoken to the injured students.

The pictures of injured students have gone viral on the social media, triggering outrage and concern about their safety.

Dr Singh fielded some questions on Facebook. He said the central government was concerned about the incidents at the premier engineering institute and added the HRD ministry team would make sure that the institute reopens without any delay so that students do not suffer any academic loss.

He also asked political leaders not to rush to Srinagar. “I think, visits by political leaders need to be avoided at this stage because such visits make no substantial contribution but instead may lead to destructive politicisation,” he said.

Earlier, deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh had admitted that some of the policemen had over stepped their brief by lathi-charging the students. He asked Director General of Police (DGP) Rajindra Kumar to investigate the matter.

Tension had gripped the NIT campus after some students celebrated the defeat of the Indian team at the hands of West Indies in the just concluded T-20 world cup series.

It seems clashes took place between two groups of students over support for cricket teams.

The outstation students took out a march through the streets of Hazratbal, where NIT campus is located. The students raised slogans and also carried a big tricolour. Fearing trouble, the institute was shut was for indefinite period, leaving only non-Kashmiri students inside the hostels.

Media reports from the valley say that the police had swung into action to stop these hostellers from coming out of the campus to speak to the media.