Bloodshed in JNU: Masked 'ABVP' men brutally attack students, professors

NEW Delhi: Violent clashes broke out between two groups of students in JNU on Sunday evening resulting in several injuries to many students and professors including JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh and one faculty Sucharita Sen of the Centre for Development of Regional Studies.

Around 18 students and two professors were admitted to AIIMS with serious injuries. Ghosh was immediately taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre as she was badly injured and was bleeding heavily from the head.

"I have been brutally attacked by goons who were wearing masks. I am not in the condition to talk," she said.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi visited injured students and professors at AIIMS and both the Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who are both former students of JNU, condemned the violence in their Alma mater.

ABVP members were blamed for carrying the attack inside the campus, but the allegation was later denied by ABVP National Secretary, who said the party members were attacked by the left supporters. The pictures and videos surfaced after the violence, however, showed the opposite scenario in and around the campus. It is seen in the videos that Masked ABVP supporters from outside the campus are beating students and professors with hockey sticks and iron rods.

Despite such violence being instilled inside the campus, about 200 members mainly belonging to ABVP, surrounded the main campus gate, and chanted "Desh Ke Gaddaron Ko, Goli Maron S***n Ko".

The mob gathered outside the campus gate also stopped the ambulance from entering and exiting the university, which delayed the admission of injured students at the hospital. The ambulance was let go after around 20 minutes. At that point, the ABVP members and their supporters, some of whom were not students of JNU and are claimed to be outsiders, gathered outside the North Gate and chanted slogans of Murdabad Vampanti, referring to the left-leaning student organisations.

By 8 pm, the streetlights around JNU campus were switched off and the campus was found to be in a state of lockdown with police personnel waiting in riot gear to enter the campus. Eminent personalities like Yogender Yadav were outside the gate. Despite the police claims of taking the situation under control, the law enforcement agencies came under heavy criticism for not handling the situation. Even hours after the incident, neither FIR was reported to be filed, nor any arrest was made by the agencies.

"Though we have been beaten brutally, police is playing mute spectator. Their role is under the scanner, as they are supporting the goons, who had kept the university campus as a hostage," said an injured student.

Students inside the campus claimed they were hiding inside different hostels to save themselves from a masked mob that was attacking students in the Sabarmati Hostel with sticks, iron rods and hammers. Several students said that hostel premises were vandalised by the masked men.

Police personnel outside the gate intermittently lathicharged the crowd to disperse tensions but the crowd kept assembling again and again. Yogender Yadav at this point was surrounded by the ABVP supporters who called for the mob to beat him up.

Around 8:45 pm, the police entered the campus but the Delhi Police personnel said that they had entered the campus as soon as the clashes broke out around 5 pm. DCP South West Devender Arya said that they entered the campus only after getting the permission of the competent authority of JNU.

"When we entered the campus, we could not see any masked men with weapons. After the flag march by us, the situation returned to normalcy," said another police official.

JNU registrar also sent out a letter asking the entire community to maintain "law and order in the JNU Campus." Contd on P3