Student clashes at Hyd Uni over Kashmir unrest: Were slogans hailing Burhan Wani raised?

Fresh clashes occurred among student groups in the University of Hyderabad just as classes resumed for the new academic year, reports the Times of India.

A group of Kashmiri students were maintaining a vigil over the Kashmir unrest, following which a brawl reportedly began, with some students alleging that ABVP members attacked them. AVBP has denied the allegations and said that they were instead attacked by the students supporting Kashmiris.

ABVP alleges that some students raised slogans in support of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. As a counter, ABVP shouted ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’.

A solidarity meeting, ‘That's When I Threw Stones', was organized at the North Shopcom shopping complex on campus on Saturday. The meeting was addressed by PhD scholar Masrook Dar, Professor G Vijay of the Economics Department and Kashmiri students of UoH.

The Times of India Reported:

Amol Singh, a PhD scholar from the political science department, said the ABVP members took out a rally on their bikes and started raising slogans of `Bharat Mata ki Jai' on campus. “After the programme, when I was walking with my friends towards NRS (new research hotsel) annex, few students hit me from behind. After they hit me, I argued with them and this led to a scuffle. About 30 ABVP members hurled abuses at me, mistaking me to be Bilal, a student from Kashmir” said Singh.

For his part, ABVP's former president at UoH, N Sushil Kumar told TOI, “Despite the group raising slogans like `Kashmir maange aazadi', `Punjab maange aazadi` and `North East maange aazadi`, we did not disturb the meeting. Subsequently, we took out a rally on the campus raising `Bharat Mata ki jai' slogans and when we reached NRS hostel annex, a group of students attacked us. Among the attackers, we could only identify one Amol Singh.

Sushil Kumar is one of the persons named as an accused in the case related to the death of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

ABVP students alleged that close to 15 students attacked them as they raised slogans in favor of ‘Bharat Mata’. One of the ABVP members reportedly suffered a fracture in his leg and was later rushed to a private hospital in the city.

A complaint has been lodged by Sushil Kumar against Amol Singh and others under various IPC sections.

The Times of India also reported, “Meanwhile, Vipin Srivastava, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the UoH, said, “We are yet to decide what has to be done in this matter. However, we have issued a notice to all the students to refrain from having any such rallies and protest marches on campus as the academic session is set to begin from Monday.“