Mahal committees tender apology for students' demanding namaz space at Kerala college

Thiruvananthpuram: The local mahal committees of Muvattupuzha on the suburbs of Kochi in Kerala have tendered apology for the row triggered by a group of students seeking namaz space at a Christian management run college.

A group of students of Nirmala College at Muvattupuzha staged a protest on Friday after the college authorities rejected their demand for separate space for offering namaz. The incident was snowballing into a communal row with Chrisitian outfits backing the college's decision and a group of Islamic outfits backing the students and calling for protest.

It was at such a juncture that representatives of the prominent mahal committees of Muvattupuzha called on the college management on Monday and tendered apology. They also termed the demand of the students as "undesirable" and also cautioned that certain vested interest groups could make use of such issues to trigger communal unrest.

The college is unlikely to take action against the students who staged protest. The college authorities maintained that their priority would be to guide the students through the right path.

Nirmala College is an over seven decades old autonomous educational institution in the state under the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

A group of students, including girls, who recently joined the college raised the demand for separate prayer space. The college authorities rejected it citing that there was no such precedent and also pointed out that there are couple of mosques close to the college. Subsequently the students launched the protest and even gheraoed the principal.

Even as there were reports that members of CPM's students' outfit Students Federation of India too took part in the protest, SFI leadership maintained that it was not backing the protest.