NEW DELHI: Masked men armed with iron rods and hammers raided hostels of the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday and beat up students and teachers, reports said.
News portals carried pictures of profusely bleeding Aishe Ghosh, the leftist president of the JNU students union (JNUSU). TV grabs showed masked men roaming freely on the campus, and students said the police and security guards refused to respond to calls for help.
Reports said the masked men belonged to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), students wing of the Hindu fascist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Several teachers independently confirmed ABVP members had entered the campus and were attacking students.
“Female students have locked themselves up inside the girls’ wing in Sabarmati Hostel. These attackers are roaming the corridors armed with rods and sticks…we are under attack,” the JNUSU Twitter handle said.
A video of a bleeding Ms Ghosh was posted on Twitter while the JNUSU said in a statement that a large number of ABVP activists had entered the campus with iron rods and told to “single out” students’ representatives.
Characteristically, the ABVP offered a rival version. It claimed its members, including its JNU unit secretary, were attacked by members of the left-backed students’ outfits and 11 of the RSS-affiliated outfit’s members were missing.
Elections are due for the Delhi Assembly in February, and students across the country have been leading protests against a controversial citizenship law that excludes Muslims from rights offered to others from three countries in South Asia
