BHU violence: FIRs against 1,000 students

VARANASI: More than 1,000 unidentified students have been booked for violence, arson, disrupting government work on the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus where violence erupted on Saturday night.

On Monday, district magistrate Yogeswar Ram Mishra initiated action against officials for failing to control violence on the campus.

Additional city magistrate Manoj Kumar Singh was transferred.

Barring small groups of students staging protests, the campus wore a deserted look on Monday amid heavy presence of security personnel. With university authorities deciding to advance festive holidays, most of the hostel inmates left the campus in the morning.

Though BHU spokesman Rajesh Singh said that no order had been issued to the students, most rooms of Birla, Acharya Narendra Dev and Lal Bahadur Shastri hostels were found vacant.

There was fresh tension outside the BHU main gate on Monday when Samajwadi Party members tried to enter the campus.

A number of Congress members, including, Ghulam Nabi Azad, UPCC chief Raj Babbar, Mahila Congress national president Sushmita Dev, were in the Naria area, which is close to the BHU campus, for a seminar. Azad alleged that the local administration and the police forced them to change the scheduled route to reach Naria. Azad termed the assault on girl students shocking.

Social activist Teesta Setalvad was also detained on suspicion that she could reach the campus. "I was repeatedly told by officials that they had orders from higher authorities to send me back from Varanasi. They, however, failed to give any reason for my detention," she said.

Trouble began on the night of September 21 when inmates of a girls hostel staged protests following the sexual harassment of a student near Bharat Kala Bhavan.

The girl was harassed by three boys on a motorcycle when she was returning to her hostel. She alleged that when she approached her warden, she was asked why she was returning to her hostel late at night. The warden's "insensitive" remark angered fellow hostellers. The students sat on protest after September 21 midnight, and continued the stir at the women's college the following day.