Lucknow: Internet services in Aligarh have been shut down till Saturday midnight even as students of the Aligarh Muslim University continued to stage a dharna at the Baba Syed gate.
Teaching in AMU has been suspended for five days following escalation of tension on the campus on the issue of Jinnah’s portrait in AMU Students’ Union office.
Media persons were also attacked by a section of AMU students on Friday. The students blamed the media for not showing their side of the story and projecting them as wrong doers.
The AMU students are demanding action against right-wing activists who clashed with AMU students on Tuesday, seeking removal of the portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the office of the AMU Students Union.
The agitating students are also demanding a case of sedition against BJP MP Satish Gautam who had written to the AMU vice-chancellor, seeking removal of the Jinnah portrait.
In an official statement , AMU officials clarified that the protest by students was against the attack by right wing activists and was not related to the Jinnah portrait.
Meanwhile, Aligarh district magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh has ordered a magisterial inquiry into Tuesday’s clashes and has asked ADM (Finance) to conduct the probe within a fortnight. Welcoming the magisterial inquiry, former Aligarh Muslim University media consultant Dr. Jasim Mohammad has said that Indian Muslims or the AMU community has no relations with ideology of Muslim League or founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah and they are against division of country. Security has been beefed up further at AMU after Hindu Jagran Manch activists Amit Goswami and Saurabh Chaudhary declared that they would enter the AMU Students’ Union office and removed the portrait of Jinnah.
In a related development, SP MP Pravin Nishad further fuelled the controversy over Jinnah when he said on Friday that the contribution of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the freedom struggle was no less than that of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
