Aligarh: AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Wednesday said the university authorities made the “painful decision” to call police to the campus during a protest earlier this week as they had learnt that “anti-social elements” had infiltrated the premises.
His comments come in the wake of a simmering controversy over the Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) decision to allow police to enter the campus on Sunday as a protest against the amended Citizenship Act turned violent.
Around 70 people were injured as students fought pitched battles with police who baton-charged protesters and used tear gas to control the situation.
AMU Registrar Abdul Hamid had said on Sunday that “a request was made to the administration to use force to control the situation” after some students and unruly elements suddenly started pelting stones and also damaged property.
“On Sunday night, an angry mob of thousands had collected inside the campus and was posing an imminent danger to the lives of the students and property of the university,” Mansoor said in an open letter to students.
Left with no other option, “we had to call the police without any delay in a pre-emptive action or else it would have led to a very grave situation,” he said.
The university authorities had received credible inputs that “lumpen and anti-social elements from outside the campus had started infiltrating the campus,” Mansoor said.
He said this has been corroborated by police investigation.
According to police, only seven out of 27 people who were arrested from inside the AMU campus on Sunday night were bonafide students of the university.
The vice chancellor said this backs the university’s stand that Sunday’s violence was incited by anti-social elements from outside.
“I am extremely pained that a number of students were injured during the violent incidents and we are taking all steps to ensure that they get the best treatments in our hospitals,” Mansoor said.
“We have been informed of police excesses, including damage to vehicles,” he said.
The vice chancellor also appealed to the students to fully cooperate with the AMU authorities when the university reopens after winter vacations on January 6 so that normalcy prevails.
Soon after the violence erupted on Sunday, the AMU administration announced closure of the varsity till January 5 and hostels were vacated.
An AMU spokesperson told PTI that the process of vacating all university hostels is now complete and only about 250 residents, mostly foreign students and some from a few distant states, are still staying in the campus.
“Special arrangements are being made for their security,” he said.
Also read: ‘Refuse to remain silent’ — Romila Thapar, Noam Chomsky & others condemn Jamia ‘brutality’
THE DELHI AND ALIGARH POLICR ARE COMMUNAL, THEY SHOUTED KUTTU AND OTHR ANTI MUSLIM INSULTS AS THEY BROKE OUR BONES
THIS VICIOUSNESS WAS NEVER DISPLAYED AT JNU OR ANY OTHER UNIVERSITY, NOR AT THE LAWERS AGITATION .
BEING BLINDED BY THE POLICE AND HEADS SMASHED , IS ONLY RESERVED FOR MUSLIMS
1. THE POLICE ENTERED THE UNIVERSITY LIBARARY, MOSQUE AND GIRLS HOSTEL SHOUTING ABUSE,
2. THEY FIRED TEAR GAS SHELLS INDOORS.
3. VANDALISED A MOSQUE
4. MOLESTED MUSLIM WOMEN.
5. OVER 70 STUDENTS NEEDED HOSPITAL TREATMENT MANY WITH BROKEN BONES.
Do not think Jamia and AMU UniversityS are slums in Ahmedabad, where the RSS can get away with atrocities.
Do this too often here and the patience of Muslims will snap.
We have the right to resist the breaking of our bones, the beatings and terrorising of our community.
Muslims are seething with anger and it will only grow – do not think we are a timid community. We wish to live peacefully.
RSS do not push us too far, because there will be a reckoning.
Our religion teaches us to stand up to injustice. You will then see a Jihad, a country like India which cannot even organise toilets for Its people will lose this kind of insurgency, it will throw both Hindu and Muslim back into the dark ages.
MUSLIMS IN INDIA WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES
EVENTUALLY WE WILL TEACH YOU A LESSON, And YOU WILL NEVER DARE TO BEAT US AGAIN
So now that cat is out of the bag. It was the AMU authorities that called in the police. The police did not enter the university campus on their own. It will be very interesting to see how our self certified liberals spin this one.