AMU students' panel begins hunger strike over 'police brutality' during anti-CAA stir

Members of the AMU students' coordination committee has begun a three-day hunger strike, seeking action against police personnel for alleged brutality during an anti-CAA stir on the campus last December and withdrawal of cases against protesters.

Announcing that their 10-week-long peaceful agitation has entered a new phase, twelve students started the 72-hour hunger strike on Friday night.

The panel said if their demands were not met, a group of students would launch an indefinite hunger strike at the Bab-e-Syed gate of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

They have sent a notice of their proposed strike to the authorities concerned at the university as well as the district authorities.

The panel also copies of their notice to the President, prime minister and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The spokesman of the committee, Faizul Hasan, told mediapersons that their main demand was that an FIR be registered against the members of the police force who "indulged in violence and vandalism" at the university on December 15.

"We also want the withdrawal of all false cases against those students who were exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest and were being pressured by the authorities to end their agitation," he said.

Hasan said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister held a very important constitutional post and if he had any concrete evidence to support his charge of unprovoked violence against the AMU students, he should place that before the the court, instead of vilifying the institution.

"On our part, we are placing all the evidence before the court and will also do so if the government orders a judicial probe," he said.

The students' coordination panel is also demanding the resignation of top university officials, including the vice-chancellor and the registrar, on the grounds of moral responsibility with regard to the December 15 incident.

They demanded that the CCTV footage of all incidents pertaining to the "police brutalities" should be fully secured and protected.

Meanwhile, at the Eidgah grounds in the old city, the woman protesters, who have been on an indefinite dharna against the Citizenship Amendment Act since the past three weeks, staged a stir at the Kotwali police station.

They alleged that police prevented them from putting up a tent at the protest site on Thursday night during a hailstorm.

Senior district officials rushed to the spot and pacified protesters.