AMU on boil after 14 booked for sedition

Tension prevailed on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus at Aligarh, about 400 kilometre from Lucknow, after 14 students were booked for sedition for reportedly raising ''anti-India'' slogans.

Security personnel in strength had been deployed in and around the campus to prevent any untoward incident even as the students boycotted their classes and took out marches in protest against the police action.

The trouble sparked off on Tuesday, when some students reportedly assaulted a member of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, who had gathered at the venue of a function in which AIMIM president Aasauddin Owaisi was also scheduled to take part.

A woman reporter from a TV channel, who had gone there to film the protest by ABVP was also reportedly ''heckled'' at the campus by the students.

Her camera was also allegedly smashed.

It was alleged that a group of AMU students later took out a procession in the campus and raised ''anti-India'' slogans.

The AMU administration claimed that the media did not have permission to enter the campus and filed a police complaint against her and also ABVP members. A counter complaint was also lodged by the ABVP.

Police sources said that 14 students, including some AMU student union office bearers, were charged with sedition.

''We are trying to identify those, who raised slogans, through video footage,'' said a senior police official in Aligarh.

The officials described the situation as ''tense'' but ''under control''.