Uttar Pradesh Police personnel deployed outside Aligarh Muslim University gate during students’ protest in Aligarh on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)
Police on Wednesday lobbed teargas shells to disperse the students of Aligarh Muslim University demanding the arrest of outsiders who had barged into the campus, shouting slogans demanding removal of the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah from students’ union office.
District magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said two youths were injured in the police action. Photographs of injured students are doing the rounds on social media.
Earlier, members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a right-wing organisation, entered the campus in afternoon and clashed with university students. They were then taken away to a police station from where they were later “rescued” by other protesters, AMU student union members said.
Aligarh MP Satish Gautam has two days ago written to AMU Vice-Chancellor seeking explanation about the presence of Jinnah’s portrait in the campus.
Meanwhile, the university has registered a complaint against activists belonging to the Hindu Yuva Vahini for raising ‘objectionable slogans’ against the university near the administrative block. The complaint was registered with the Civil Lines police station just hours before a lecture was to be delivered by former Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is also the former Vice-Chancellor of the university.
As per the complaint, security guards posted at the university gate apprehended 4-5 activists and handed them over to the police. Soon after, another group of activists, allegedly carrying pistols and sticks, arrived at the scene and raised ‘objectionable slogans.’
(With PTI inputs)