General Secretary of AMU Employees’ Union Shamim Akhtar, in a statement, said, “We strongly deplore the anti-national slogans raised during the JNU protest, but the question is, have the police investigated into the identity of those who raised these slogans?”
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Later Monday afternoon ugly scenes broke out outside a New Delhi courtroom where Kumar was expected to be produced as several dozen lawyers and BJP supporters attacked students and reporters. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on Friday over a demonstration days earlier. “We demand strong action against anybody who was involved in this matter irrespective of political affiliation”.
Prakash Karat (centre L), a leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), addresses students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) during a protest inside the university campus in New Delhi, India, February 15, 2016.
With Kumar’s custody extended and the both students and faculty of the university still holding protests against the crackdown, Shehla Rashid, the Vice President of the JNU Student Union stepped in to address the allegations levelled against them.
In the largest protest, thousands of students and academics at New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) boycotted classes and erected barricades for a fourth day in an escalating conflict with the authorities.
Addressing some 400 students inside the campus, she said they are well aware of the fact that they are studying on the tax paid by ordinary citizens including themselves. “The petition is premature”, said the court on the demand for NIA probe.
Om Prasad of the All India Students Association said the teachers had been angered by attempts to “defame” the university, which has a long history of left-wing activism.
A group of students had on February 9 held an event in the campus and allegedly shouted slogans against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in 2013.
Meanwhile S.A.R Geelani, a former Delhi University lecturer, was arrested early on Tuesday on the same charge in connection with another event marking Guru’s death.
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Indian forces have since 1989 been fighting militant groups seeking either independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan.
