Horrifying accounts of JNU attack emerge amidst police inaction

New Delhi: The clamour grew for the resignation of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor on Monday after an attack on the institution's students and teachers by unidentified goons left 34 people injured.

Delhi Police said no arrests have been made and that they have transferred the case to the Crime Branch, who claimed to have found "vital clues."

The opposition and JNU students blamed the ABVP, the students' wing of the BJP for the violence, and accused the Delhi Police of inaction. The BJP said campuses should not become political battleground.

On Sunday, a mob of masked young people stormed the JNU campus in south Delhi and systematically targeted students in three hostels, unleashing mayhem with sticks, stones and iron rods, hitting inmates and breaking windows, furniture and personal belongings. They also attacked a women's hostel.

Protests against the citizenship amendment act and the attack against students of JNU -- which has seen a 70-day strike against the hike in fees -- segued into one with students joining parties across the political spectrum to call for accountability.

The 34 people, including students and faculty members, who were admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre were discharged on Monday morning, officials said.

Students' reactions

I was specifically targeted on Sunday during a peace march on campus. Around 20-25 masked persons disrupted the march and attacked me with iron rods, union president Aishe Ghosh, her head swathed in bandages, told PTI after being released from hospital earlier Monday. She received at least 15 stitches on the head, and her arm was in a cast after the attack.

The ABVP has denied being responsible, and in turn, has blamed Ghosh's Left-supported union of stage managing the violence. It also claimed that many of its activists were injured, but has not presented any to the media.

"For the last four-five days, some RSS affiliated professors were promoting violence to break our movement," Ghosh alleged at a press conference later.

As students began cleaning the debris, hundreds of security personnel swarmed the campus - and outside it too -- keeping a watchful eye on the restless crowds that sang songs of revolution and raised slogans. Many students also packed their bags and left for their homes.

A Kashmiri student, requesting anonymity, said he was chased by the mob and had jump from the first floor with his friends.

"We were three-four friends inside a room. Suddenly, some of our friends came running and said, 'The ABVP is coming with lathis and rods'. We latched the room but within a few seconds, they started banging on it with lathis. They also broke glass windows on top of the door. Scared, we opened the balcony door and jumped from the first floor. Otherwise they would have killed us," the student said.

Surya Prakash, a visually challenged student, was beaten too.

"They came to my room and beat with me rods. I told them I am blind but they continued the assault. I have been hit badly and I will have to go for an X-ray. I'm scared," he said.

Shreya Ghosh asked how armed goons could enter the campus and said, "The attack could not have happened without the connivance of the administration and police."

Pan-India protests emerge

Large protests took place Monday in universities in Pondicherry to Chandigarh and Aligarh to Kolkata. Protests were also held at the National Law University in Bangalore and IIT-Bombay as well as at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

"Today it is them, tomorrow it can be us," Raiza, a Pondicherry university student, said.

In Mumbai, the protest by students at the Gateway of India that started at midnight continued.

In New Delhi, the youth wing of the Congress Party took out a torchlight march through central New Delhi.

In Nepal , JNU alumni gathered at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu to voice their protest, as did students at Oxford University and University of Sussex in Britain and at Columbia University in the US.

HRD Ministry meets JNU officials

The HRD Ministry met officials from the JNU administration on Monday and took stock of the situation on the campus following Sunday's violence, even as Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar skipped the meeting.

Meanwhile, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank,' who was in Bhubhaneshwar, on Monday said educational institutions cannot be allowed to become "political adda" and vowed "strong action" against the perpetrators of the violence at JNU.

Political parties condemn attack

Politicians of all parties condemned the violence.

"The horrifying and unprecedented violence unleashed on India's young by goons with active abetment of the ruling Modi government is deplorable and unacceptable," alleged Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Union minister Smriti Irani said campuses should not be made a "political battlefield" and hoped students would not become political pawns.

Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati also condemned the violence.

While Yadav said masked men attacking teachers and students in JNU shows how "low" the government will stoop to rule through "fear" and accused the BJP of using violence and hate to polarise society, Mayawati termed the mob attack shameful and demanded a judicial probe.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said JNU students were subjected to a "cowardly and planned attack".

Congress leader P Chidambaram said the violence in JNU was an example of the country's "descent into fascism" and the incident was the most clinching evidence of India rapidly descending into anarchy.

And while Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena compared the JNU violence with the 26/11 terror attack, his counterpart in Kerala and political rival Pinarayi Vijayan said "Nazi-style attacks" on students and teachers inside the campus were an attempt to create unrest and violence in the country.

The Left leader said the attack on students is an "appalling display of intolerance running amok".

Bollywood spoke up too. "Horrifying", "heartbreaking" and "barbaric" is how many in the film industry, including actors-filmmakers Anil Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Rajkummar Rao, Anurag Kashyap and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, described the attack.

(With inputs from PTI.)