JNU Violence: Students asked to show identity cards to enter hostel

NEW DELHI: A day after clashes broke out at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) Kaveri Hostel mess allegedly over-serving of non-vegetarian food, the security guards on Monday were asking students to show their identity cards to enter the hostel. According to a student, who did not wish to be identified, the security guards were even asking residents to show ID cards.

"A guest can enter the hostel without any bar till 11 pm, but today they are asking guests for IDs and to enter their names in the register," he said. Inside the hostel mess, a few shards of glass were lying on the floor, reminiscent of the incident that happened on Sunday night. Behind the hostel mess, there is an open area where a tent was erected and a puja was performed on the occasion of Ram Navami. The place still had the ‘hawan kund’ kept there. Two groups of students on Sunday had clashed allegedly over the serving of non-vegetarian food in the hostel mess.

The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU), which is led by Left-affiliate outfits, has alleged that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supporters attacked the students while opposing the serving of non-vegetarian food in the Kaveri Hostel mess on the Hindu festival. The ABVP, however, denied the charge and claimed that "Leftists" obstructed a 'puja' organised at the hostel on Ram Navami. Both sides had accused each other of pelting stones and injuring their members. Meanwhile, a student at the university, who was injured during the clashes on Sunday, alleged that ambulances were not allowed to enter the varsity campus and she had to take an auto to reach the hospital.

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Several purported videos of the violence surfaced on social media, with one of them showing a student, Akhtarista Ansari, bleeding from the head. Ansari who is pursuing Masters in sociology at JNU said that on Sunday, at about 8pm, when she got to know about the violence, she immediately rushed to Kaveri Hostel and saw that the "ABVP goons" were brutally attacking the students with stones and rods. "Women students were sexually harassed by the ABVP members present there. I was attacked on my head with a heavy stone. "Despite being injured, they did not allow the ambulance to enter inside. So, I took a backside route and hired an auto to reach the hospital," she alleged. "I got myself treated at AIIMS and I sustained around four stitches to my head," she told reporters.

Prabhanshu Kajla, a PhD student who was also injured in the violence at Kaveri Hostel, said, "They (ABVP supporters) snatched phones of students and manhandled us. Security guards were also attacked. They beat me up once. "I then rushed to Godavari dhaba, where they came in groups following me and thrashed me there again brutally. My friend Harender, who was coming from the other side, was also attacked with a wiper," he alleged.

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He added that he received five-six stitches to different parts of the body. Another victim who is a female from the RSS-affiliate ABVP alleged that she was attacked by a group when she was going to the library around 8 pm after the Ram Navami puja on the Kaveri lawn. "Suddenly, some people started abusing me and they attacked me with knives, stones and sticks. They harassed me physically. When I opposed, they started beating me up and injured me in my right arm, back and legs...," she alleged.