The All India Students' Federation (AISF) has called for the shutdown of all educational institutes in Kerala on Tuesday to protest against the violent and coordinated attack on students of Jawaharlal Nehru University by masked men on Sunday evening. In a statement by AISF state president Kabeer P and secretary J Arun Babu, the student body alleged that Sangh Parivar is unleashing violence across the country against students.
“In JNU, students and teachers were assaulted by ABVP and RSS workers from outside campus. Suppressing the opposing voices through violence is unconstitutional and barbaric," says the statement.
It said that ABVP attacked the students who were protesting against the fees increment in JNU and against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The statement said that JNU student union president Aishe Ghosh and Sucharita Sen, a renowned teacher at the university were chosen intentionally by the attackers.
A few hours after the attack against the students and faculty on JNU, students across India started protesting. In Bengaluru, students of the National Law University held a protest on the university campus on Sunday night.
SFI members of the University of Hyderabad had gathered on the campus in solidarity with JNU students. Students at Aligarh Muslim University, too, protested. In Pune, students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) also marked their protest. In Kerala, the SFI Kerala unit took out a march to the Accountant General's office in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday night.
About 60 to 100 masked men entered the JNU campus on Sunday holding lathis. The attack reportedly began around 6.30 pm when stones were thrown at a peace march of students and teachers. Many students and teachers were severely injured in the attack. The JNU Students Union has alleged that ABVP is behind the attack. They have also alleged there were members who did not belong to campus among the attackers. The attackers also entered the JNU hostels assaulted students, teachers and also vandalised the premises.