Students and Popular Front of India (PFI) activists protested at a college in Dakshina Kannada district against the ban on hijab and stopping men from sporting long beards on Saturday, reported TOI.

Muslim students from Srinivas College of Pharmacy, Valachil campus near Mangaluru protested against the administration saying such rules were an attempt by college authorities to suppress religious rights.

They also protested against the college’s refusal to extend lunch hour on Fridays to allow Muslim students to attend prayers.

Fathima, a third year student from the college reportedly said that the ban on hijab was new as her seniors were allowed, reported Bangalore Mirror.

“The principal is targeting students in the name of religion. He thinks students will listen to music inside the classroom. We have to respect our religion,” she added.

However, the administration countered the protester’s claims saying the students agreed to the dress code at the time of admission. “The rule was imposed keeping in mind ‘uniform dress code’”.

A Srinivas Rao, vice-president, A Shama Rao Foundation and Srinivas Group of Colleges said, “Timetables are framed according to rules of the university and we do not have the authority to modify them according to our whims and fancies.”

The newspaper reported that the management has asked for two weeks to sort out this issue.

The row over hijab is not new to this region, which is also known to be communally sensitive. In 2014, a pharmacy college in the same area had allegedly asked students to leave because there were wearing the headscarf.