Quoting sources, The Telegraph reports that HRD ministry officials Sanjeev Sharma and Fazal Mahmood, who visited NIT, have submitted an interim report and could partly blame the non-Kashmiri students for the trouble. Indeed, the timing of the incident—coming less than a week after Mehbooba Mufti became CM, breaking a three-month deadlock over government formation following her father and former CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s death—only fanned suspicions. Mehbooba too raised questions over what prompted HRD minister Smriti Irani to send the probe team to NIT and has hinted there is more to the incident than meets the eye. In her first meeting with her ministerial colleagues from the BJP, she stressed on the need to “underplay some unfortunate and uncalled for” incidents like NIT. “Ultimately, we have to run a coalition government in the state,” she says. “And Kashmir is not just another Indian state. The ground realities are different and, therefore, the state deserves special attention and care.”