New Delhi: A group of 100-odd masked goons barged into the JNU campus on Sunday evening, armed with sticks, rods and hammers. Students and faculty members were attacked at random and later the miscreants went on the rampage from hostel to hostel.
The JNU students' union has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by the ABVP. The mayhem brought back images of a recent police crackdown on the Jamia Milia campus – by an uncanny coincidence again on a Sunday.
All this happened even though there is a posse of policemen posted outside the JNU main gate, but who possibly were not inclined to enter the campus, wiser after the Jamia embarrassment. The nearest thana at Vasant Kunj is just a km away.
In the absence of any help from the police, students were seen cowering in fear and making distress calls to professors and relatives for help.
The unbridled violence was unleashed for almost an hour and a half and seemed to be pre-meditated, from all accounts.
What was distressing is that the alleged lumpen element, suspected to be ABVP students, ran amok with impunity, fanning from one hostel to another, including the Sabarmati and the Periyar.
‘The attackers, with covered faces, are trying to enter the Periyar Hostel by climbing the pipes," a distress student said in an SOS on Twitter. Even the girl’s hostel was not spared.
The roads on the campus were littered with debris of cars the windshield of which was smashed to smithereens. Huge stones and shards of glass on the roads and in the corridors made for a shocking spectacle on the campus of the premier education institution of higher studies.
Members of faculty were not spared either and Professor Sucharitra Sen was among those seen in a wheelchair with her head bandaged.
Most students ran around like headless chicken and some took refuge in the library; but they were hustled out by the administrative staff at closure time at 8 pm.
Finally, they assembled outside in the cold, where they felt they were more secure in a huddle than in small scattered groups. The JNU students were in news earlier for their protracted standoff with the university administration over changes in fee structure.
The JNU administration claimed students agitating over the hike in hostel fees had "ransacked" the server room on Saturday and "intimidated" the technical staff.
While the JNU students union alleged that ABVP students had masqueraded as goons, the RSS-affiliated ABVP said its members were protesting against the disruption of internet, after which they were attacked by the Left goondas.
Aishi Ghosh, the president of the students' union, was brutally attacked. In images doing the rounds on social media he was seen bleeding from the forehead.
A professor, Atul Sood, told NDTV: "The mob threw huge stones, these were big missiles that could have fractured our skulls. I fell on the side and when I came out, I saw cars completely vandalised, including my car," said Sood.
Hashtagged "#EmergencyinJNU and #SOSJNU, a tweet from the students' union's official handle read: "Professors who were trying to protect us have been beaten up. Stay alert. Make human chains. Protect each other."
Fifteen students are hospitalised at AIIMS and there was no sign of the Vice Chancellor. Nor was it clear why the Police Commissioner did not respond to the situation with alacrity. On campus ambulances were not deployed either.
