A day after violence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the situation remained tense in the campus.
Terrified by the Sunday evening mayhem, a number of students, including women, left the campus vacating their hostel rooms for safety even as police personnel were deployed by the Delhi police in every nook and corner of the university to maintain law and order situations.
“I kept on screaming that I am blind, spare me, but they did not listen. They kept on kicking me, beating me with fists and an iron rod,” Surya Prakash, a visually challenged research scholar, said narrating the horrific tale of the mayhem.
A large group of masked men, armed with batons and iron rods, stormed the JNU campus and beat up students who were participating in protests against the hostel fee hike and other issues for over two months on a call from the JNU student union for a total strike in the varsity.
At least 30 students including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and some faculty member sustained critical injuries in the attack.
“I am going back to my home now. I am so terrified, and so are others in the university. We don't what's going to happen next,” a BA first-year student from Odisha said, recalling her ordeal.
Students and faculty members of the university, meanwhile, took out a protest march in the campus, demanding the arrest of those who perpetrated the violence. They also demanded “immediate” removal of the vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar from his post and restoration of peace on the campus.
"For the past four-five days, some RSS-affiliated professors were promoting violence to break our movement (against hostel fee hike)" the JNU students' union (JNUSU) president, who was released from AIIMS after multiple stitches in her head, said addressing a press conference.
The ABVP activists also held a press conference and accused the members of the Left-backed students' unions of being involved in Sunday's violence, alleging that they had kept the varsity to ransom for over two months and not allowing the administration to conduct examinations.
Amid accusations and counter-accusations against each other, the activists of the Left-backed student's unions released some Whatsapp group chats showing how some right-wing group members allegedly planned the Sunday violence. They also shared pictures of some of the ABVP activists on social media who allegedly participated in attacking the students wearing masks.
