India has closed a medical college in Indian-occupied Kashmir following protests from right-wing Hindu groups regarding the high number of Muslim students admitted to the prestigious program.

According to an Al Jazeera report, the National Medical Commission has cancelled the licence of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute in the hilly Reasi district of occupied Kashmir.

The district is located near the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas, which separates the Jammu plains from the Kashmir Valley.

The 50 pupils who joined the five-year bachelor’s in medicine (MBBS) programme in November, 42 were Muslims, and most of them were residents of Kashmir, while seven were Hindus and one was a Sikh.

It was the first MBBS batch that the private college, founded by a Hindu religious charity and funded by the government, had launched.

Every year, more than two million Indian students take the NEET, a centralised entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) of the federal Ministry of Education, hoping to secure one of approximately 120,000 MBBS seats.

Aspirants typically prefer public colleges because they have lower fees, although the cutoffs for admission are usually high.

Those who do not meet the cutoff but achieve a minimum NTA score often enrol in private colleges.

Following the announcement of the college’s inaugural batch in November, local Hindu groups learned about the religious composition of the students and launched demonstrations demanding that Muslim students be excluded from admission.

They argued that since the college was funded by contributions from devotees at the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a prominent Hindu shrine in Kashmir, Muslim students should not be allowed to attend.

The protests continued for weeks, with protesters gathering outside the college gates daily and chanting slogans.

At the same time, some lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party sent petitions to the Lieutenant Governor of Kashmir, asking that admissions to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi be restricted to Hindu students only.

Following intense protests, the National Medical Commission announced on January 6 that the college did not meet the minimum educational standards set by the government and its recognition had been cancelled.

According to the National Medical Commission, the college was seriously short of teaching staff, number of beds, number of patients in outpatient departments, library and operating theatres.

The next day, the letter of permission allowing the college to function and run courses was also withdrawn.

According to the report, Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir Omar Abdullah alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied Hindu groups were involved in campaigning against the admission of Muslims in the college.