Students demand that guilty be booked
New Delhi: A day after they were attacked in what they believed was their safe refuge, many students in Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday were both angry and fearful with some demanding that the guilty be booked and others saying they were going home.
There was an uneasy calm in the campus where there was a massive deployment of security personnel and authorities only allowed students with valid ID cards inside.
However, these measures did not assuage the concerns of students over their safety. Akarsh Ranjan from Periyar hostel said students have received threats that they should not come out from their rooms.
Shreya Ghosh, a resident of Shipra Hostel, asked how could goons enter the campus with rods and sticks and said, “The attack could not have happened without the connivance of the administration and police.”
She claimed that she had to hide in Sabaramati Hostel after the masked men chased her and some other people. A Kashmiri student, requesting anonymity said, he was also chased by the mob along with other students and he had to jump from the first floor of the hostel to save themselves.
“We were 3-4 friends inside a room. Suddenly, some of our friends came running and said, ‘The ABVP is coming with lathis and rods’. We latched the room but within a few seconds, they started banging on it with lathis. They also broke glass windows on top of the door. Scared, we opened the balcony door and jumped from the first floor. Otherwise they would have killed us,” the student said.
Surya Prakash, a visually challenged student, said he was scared after being attacked in Sunday’s violence. “They came to my room and beat with me rods. I told them I am blind but they continued the assault. I have been hit badly and I will have to go for an X-ray. I’m scared after yesterday’s violence,” Prakash said.
Masood, a student pursuing PhD in Urdu, claimed that he was attacked because he was from Kashmir. Several students were also seen leaving the campus.
A student, Pancham, who did not reveal her last name, said she was leaving the hostel because her parents feared for her safety.
Mallika Sinha, a computer science student from Nepal who lives in the Yamuna Hostel, said she received a call from her parents asking her to leave the campus. At the entrance of Sabarmati Hostel, the premises was littered with shards of window panes and some students were seen clearing the debris. The hostel mess was also damaged in the violence on Sunday. (PTI)