Jinnah portrait row: Situation at AMU 'under control'

Situation at the AMU campus, scene of violent incidents yesterday, remained "under control" today with no untoward incident being reported from anywhere, authorities said.

No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere since last evening but heavy deployment of police and RAF personnel was being maintained at strategic points in and around the campus, District Magistrate, Aligarh, Chandra Bhushan Singh said.

The administration is keeping a strong vigil to prevent trouble-mongers from creating law and order situation, he said.

Singh said the district administration held a meeting with Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor and some alumni and sought their cooperation in helping restore normalcy in the campus.

After a day of protests and violence, an eerie silence descended over the campus the morning even as hundreds of student protesters gathered at the Baab-e-Syed gate, the scene of yesterday's violent incident in which around 20 students were injured in police action.

Violence broke out at the university yesterday after the right-wing protestors barged into the varsity demanding removal of the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah displayed on the campus.

Following yesterday's incident, policemen in large numbers and a RAF contingent were deployed near the Baab-e-Syed gate to maintain law and order.

While the rest of the injured students were discharged after first aid, three of those with serious injuries are admitted at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College hospital.

According to a hospital official, all the three students are out of danger and recovering.

The AMU students today sat on an indefinite dharna demanding action against the protestors.

The AMU Students' Union (AMUSU) alleged that violence on the campus was a "deliberate and pre-planned attempt" to attack former vice president Hamid Ansari, who was at that time barely 100 metres away at the university guest house, from where the violence erupted.

"Our protest will continue indefinitely till the police takes action against those who were actually targeting the former vice president who had come to the AMU where he was to be granted a life membership of the Students' Union," the AMUSU said in a statement issued here.

President, AMUSU, Mashkoor Ahmad Usmani, who was also injured in yesterday's lathicharge by the police, said the students would approach the National Human Right Commission "with the help of all secular organisations of the country" if all doors to justice are closed by the state government.

A spokesman of the varsity strongly condemned yesterday's "trespassing" of the university boundary by Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) activists who were raising "highly objectionable and inflammatory slogans".

"We hope that the state government will take strong action against the Hindu Yuva Vahini youths who deliberately tried to disturb peace on the university campus," he said.

The AMU Teachers' Association (AMUTA) held an emergency meeting last night and passed a resolution stating that yesterday's action by the HYV was a "deliberate criminal conspiracy" in which the police instead of punishing the aggressors, indulged in "brutal action" against the students, who had later collected at the gate to protest the failure of the police to prevent the outsiders from entering the campus.

It has demanded that an FIR should be lodged against those who "masterminded the entire operation".

The AMUTA blamed the police for its "glaring security breach" for allowing "armed goons" to reach a spot which was just adjoining the university guest house where the former vice president was staying.

Meanwhile, former Union HRD minister and senior RJD leader M A Fatmi called upon the protesting students "to not fall prey" to the designs of those forces which want to "destabilise" the AMU and cause "irreparable" damage to the university's academic schedule and the future of thousands of students.

Addressing the students, sitting on the indefinite dharna, Fatmi, who is also a former secretary of the AMU Students' Union, made a fervent appeal to the students to act with "restraint and discretion".

Later talking to reporters, Fatmi said, "It is strange that the police did not use force to prevent the goons belonging to different saffron organisations from barging into the campus right next to the building where the former vice president of India was staying".

Instead, they used excessive force shortly later to control the AMU students who were protesting against the illegal trespassing by activists of some Hindutva groups who were raising highly provocative slogans, he said, adding that it is tragic that the Narendra Modi-led government is following "cynical but deadly policy of dividing the two communities for narrow political gains".

It is for the AMU's governing bodies, the AMU Students' Union and ultimately the government of India to decide the fate of Jinnah's portrait at the Students' Union hall, Fatmi said.

"I have nothing to say about Jinnah's portrait but I call upon the prime minister to take action against his own party leader, former deputy prime minister L K Advani, who paid tributes to Jinnah and offered a chadar on his grave as a mark of respect," he added.