Staff said they will tear our burqas with scissors, claims NEET aspirant

Medical entrance exam NEET has sparked a controversy in Maharashtrarsquos Washim district where five Muslim girl students were allegedly forced to remove their hijabs and burqas before taking the test on Sunday While the parents of two girls have filed a police complaint against the exam centre its officials defended the action stressing that they simply followed the rule The Washim police said they will soon record the statements of the accused and witnesses The Washim police said they will soon record the statements of the accused and witnessesThe girls and their parents said the staff at Matoshree Shantabai Gote College on Hingoli RoadWashim allegedly made disrespectful remarks against them and their attire ldquoThe staff and college principal and the staff must tender a public apology for their behaviour We submitted our complaint to the Washim city police station on Mondayrdquo said Gazanfar Hussain the uncle of one of the girlsMatoshree Shantabai Gote College at Washim where the alleged incident took placeThe NEET UG exam was held at six centres in Washim district and Matoshree Shantabai Gote College was one of them Just before the exams five aspirants in hijab and burqas were stopped for checking ldquoEven after matching our faces with the photo on the hall tickets they asked us to remove the burqas and hijabs When we reasoned with them and refused to do so one of the staff told us they will tear them with scissors if we didnrsquot do as they said We requested them to check us and allow us in but the staff spoke to us disrespectfullyrdquo said Ariba Saman one of the aspirantsAnother student said ldquoI went out and informed my uncle about this I had then removed the hijab and entered the exam hall This time they stopped me again and asked me to remove my scarf too We were running out of time so we did as they told us and appeared for the exam I was very scaredrdquoAthar Hussain the father of one of the complainants said ldquoWe then checked with other centres in Washim We learnt that they checked and frisked the students and allowed them to appear for the exam wearing burqa and hijab I even called people in other districts everybody confirmed this Following this we confronted the staff but we were not allowed in Hence we approached the policerdquolsquoThey didnrsquot approach usrsquoPrincipal Prof G S Kubade said the staff just followed the rules and that none of the complainants approached them with their grouse ldquoStudents who were wearing any sort of religious attire were supposed to reach the exam centre an hour earlier for checking This is mentioned as Rule 9 on their hall ticket Accordingly these girls were checked and frisked To my knowledge they removed their hijabs and burqas and appeared for the exams The entire exam process went on very smooth It was later that they gathered the crowd outside the college campus and created a ruckus Till then I was not even aware something like this happened they did not come to me or else I would have taken every step to help them We have CCTV cameras in place the girls can come and tell us if someone spoke to them disrespectfully but they did not come to merdquo said Kubade Rule 9 on the hall tickets reads ldquoIf religion customs require you to wear a specific attire please visit the centre early for thorough checkingrdquolsquoNot opposed to checkingrsquoThe parents stated they were alright with checking but there was no need to force them to remove their hijabs and burqas Kubade said they also wanted to make sure everything was in order ldquoThis is the first time we held the NEET exam on our premises A total of 288 students were scheduled to appear for the exam but ten were absent The remaining students appeared for the exam and there was no complaint Our college has been teaching Urdu literature for over two decades so many Muslim girl students come to the campus They have never faced such discrimination Somebody is purposely creating hatred and confusionrdquoProbe on CopsWashim Deputy Superintendent of Police Sunil Pujari said a probe is on ldquoAfter the incident the girlsrsquo parents and relatives approached us and the case is being investigated by police inspector Rafiq Shaikh of Washim city police station Soon the statements of those involved including the eyewitnesses will be recorded and appropriate action will be takenrdquo5No of students allegedly told to take off hijab or burqa17 JulyWhen NEET UG was held in the country