AMU students' union leaders on indefinite relay hunger strike

The Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union (AMUSU) leaders began their indefinite relay hunger strike late last night demanding judicial enquiry into the violence on the campus over the portrait of Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The protesters, however, announced that they would not disrupt the holding of annual and entrance examinations that began yesterday.

Today, the protesters allowed the opening of the main AMU gate, Baab-e-Syed, which had been locked for the past 11 days to facilitate the movement of those students who are appearing in the engineering entrance.

Earlier, several AMU students sat on an indefinite dharna after a clash with the police on May 2 when they were demanding action against the right-wing Hindu activists, who had entered the campus and shouted slogans against Jinnah's portrait.

They are asking for a judicial probe into the alleged police inaction and the manner in which the row erupted after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satish Gautam had objected to the portrait in the students' union office.

Meanwhile, former AMU vice-chancellor Lt Gen. (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah alleged today that the recent attack by armed goons at the AMU campus, even while former vice president Hamid Ansari was visiting the campus, was "actually an attempt to target Ansari by forces inimical to him".

The incident which took place on May 2, was not concerning Jinnah's portrait on AMU premises, he said in a statement here.

Ansari had come to the varsity to receive the AMUSU life membership and deliver a lecture on the topic: 'Failure of India to Establish a Pluralistic Society'.