Students boycott class as boy allowed to keep beard

KOZHIKODE: Students of the Calicut University's Centre for Physical Education boycotted classes to protest against its decision to allow a Muslim student to keep his beard. First year BPED student Mohammed Hilal was banned from attending classes from August 1 for sporting a beard, on a complaint. Vice Chancellor K Mohammed later allowed him to come to college until the final disposal of the complaint. Protesting the decision, students of the department boycotted classes, around 150 of them took out a rally demanding uniform rules for all students. "Almost all physical education institutions have been following this tradition. It is also mandatory to remove beard while participating in body contact events like boxing, wrestling and so on," said physical department co-ordinator Surendran P.