14 AMU students charged with ‘sedition’ after Republic TV crew, saffron activists trigger unrest on campus

Aligarh, Feb 13: In a shocking development, 14 students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh were charged with sedition after a group of aggressive journalists belonging to Republic TV entered the campus without permission and fought with students under the pretext of reporting last evening.

The journalists were backed by the activists of Sangh Parivar who not only thrashed the students but also lodged complaint against them accusing them of pro-Pakistan slogans.  The local police did not delay in filing a First Information Report against the students based on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha district leader Mukesh Lodhi.

The police were earlier called by the AMU administration after they alleged that the Republic TV crew entered the campus without prior permission to shoot an event in the varsity.

It is learnt that a clash broke out when a few students raised objection to Republic TV crew’s alleged attempt to defame the university and referring to it as a “university of terrorists” in an attempt to elicit a reaction.

False and Fabricated

Rubbishing the allegation of raising pro-Pakistan slogans, the university’s students union called the FIR “false and fabricated” and claimed that the Republic TV team and “some associates of RSS and BJP entered the campus with malafide intention”.

“They were asking farcical questions and labelling AMU with terror and anti-national activities,” the union’s president, Salman Imtiaz, said. “When the AMU students challenged the said media reporters on its manner of questions and asked them to seek permission from relevant authorities, the reporters heckled the students and the female reporter threatened to frame false sexual harassment charges against the students.”

According to Imtiaz, the university staff asked the crew to stop the reporting but they “continued with the aggression”. “This led to the disruption in the campus,” he said. It was followed by a reaction from a well-armed gang of BJP terrorists who started beating AMU students and were beaten in defence.”

The person who filed the FIR against the 14 students was allegedly part of the crowd. His FIR claimed that “hundreds of AMU students” surrounded his vehicle and assaulted him and fired at him. The FIR accused the AMU students of shouting pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans.

Following the incident, the university administration filed two separate complaints with the police – one against the journalists for entering the campus without permission and the other against unidentified miscreants for indulging in arson and unlawful activities, sources said.

Hamza Sufyan, the vice president of the students’ union, was quoted as saying by a news paper that fracas had erupted during a student event about oppressed sections of the society. “The reporters from Republic TV did not have permission to cover the event or enter the university premises,” Sufyan alleged. “When they were stopped by the proctor, they misbehaved with university officials and got into a confrontation, raising objectionable slogans calling AMU a ‘university of terrorists’.”