Students made to wear hijab in Madhya Pradesh school, 11 members of management arrested

The incident has been reported from Ganga Jamna Higher Secondary School in Damoh district, which is some 250 km away from the capital Bhopal.

The members of the management committee of the government-aided minority school, consisting of nine Muslims and two non-Muslims, were charged by the Damoh Kotwali police under Indian Penal Code Section 295 (damaging or defiling any object held as sacred by any class of persons) and 506 (criminal intimidation), as well as provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act on Wednesday.

According to reports, the FIR was filed based on statements from at least three students, two girls, and a boy, studying in Class VI and Class VIII. All these three students were Hindus. The girl students claimed that the school management forced them to wear the hijab while inside the school premises.

They alleged that they were forced to remove the sacred thread (Kalawa) from their wrists and the religious mark (tilak) from their foreheads.

Additionally, the students said that they were also forced to recite Allama Iqbal's poem "Lab Pe Aati Hai Dua Banke Tamanna" during the morning prayers.

An FIR was registered a few hours after the state's home minister Narottam Mishra informed journalists in Bhopal that he had instructed the Damoh district police to register a complaint against the school.

Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School already faces a probe for allegedly making non-Muslim girl students wear the 'hijab'.