The Foreign Student Advisory Committee is established.
Ahmedabad:
A total of five people were arrested by the police after they were attacked at a Gujarat university hostel for offering namaz to international students, even as the varsity decided to move foreign students to a new building and hire ex-servicemen to beef up security.
The police, which has formed nine teams to investigate and identify all the attackers, arrested three more people – Kshitij Pandey, Jitendra Patel and Sahil Dudhatiya – on Monday, adding to the earlier arrests of Hitesh Mevada and Bharat Patel.
This brings the total number of arrests to five, police said, adding that efforts were on to nab the remaining criminals.
The incident, which involved a group attacking praying students near a dormitory building on Saturday, prompted the university to move foreign students to a new wing and hire ex-servicemen to beef up security.
The public university took immediate steps and decided to shift international students to separate hostels specifically designated for non-resident Indians (NRIs) within three days.
In addition, a Foreign Student Advisory Committee has been established and military veterans have been deployed to enhance security in dormitories.
Neerja Gupta, vice-chancellor of Gujarat University, announced the immediate replacement of study abroad program coordinators and NRI hostel administrators.
Deputy Police Commissioner Tarun Dugar said a thorough investigation is underway, using technical surveillance and other methods to identify remaining suspects involved in the attack.
The police have registered an FIR against 20 to 25 unidentified assailants for offenses including rioting, voluntarily hurting and trespassing.
Two students – one from Sri Lanka and the other from Tajikistan – were taken to hospital after the incident on Saturday night, police said.
Amid these developments, the Gujarat High Court declined to intervene as an investigating agency and confirmed that not all incidents warrant filing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The court’s position underscores the role of law enforcement in resolving this issue, urging those seeking legal avenues with specific questions related to the incident.
“Don’t replace this court with a police inspector. Don’t make us police inspectors. We are not investigating officers,” said Sunita Agarwal, Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.
Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi has held a meeting with the police and directed them to take strict judicial action in the matter, police chief GS Malik told reporters on Sunday.
“Around 20 to 25 people entered the hostel building (on Saturday night) and objected to international students holding prayers there and asking them to do so in the mosque. They got into an argument over the issue, attacked them and threw stones. They also vandalized them ‘s dormitory. Room,” the police chief said.
Malik said there are about 300 international students studying at Gujarat University, including students from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka and countries on the African continent.
On a related note, civil society groups have condemned the attacks on international students and demanded strict action against the perpetrators and police personnel who allegedly failed to prevent the attacks.
Zafar Sareshwara, a businessman from Gujarat and former president of the Morana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad, said he had discussed the issue with senior state government officials and expressed hope that such incidents would not happen Will happen again.
Sareshwara, known as a “moderate” Muslim and close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on Twitter that he raised the issue while international students were performing Taraweeh, the night prayers performed during Ramadan. “We have spoken to top officials of the Gujarat government over the issue of beating and abusing international students,” Sareshwara said in a post on X. They assured strictest and strictest action against the miscreants. “
He also responded to a post on Twitter saying that students had obtained permission from the authorities and that “Ramadan tarawi has been going on for many years,” suggesting that a place near the hostel building had been designated for namaz.
Civil rights NGO Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said the attacks on international students were deeply worrying and called for strict action against the perpetrators.
The National Organizing Committee of the Socialist Solidarity Center of India (Communist Party) also condemned the incident and demanded action against the accused as well as the police who, according to the NGO, were present but failed to save the students from the attack.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
