BHU shut after students hurt in clash with police

Lucknow: Violence erupted on the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus late on Saturday night, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit was over, when students protesting against an eve-teasing incident clashed with the security personnel. Over a dozen students and some mediapersons have been injured in the violence.

UP chief minister Yogi Aditynath has ordered a probe into the attacks on the media and on students to be conducted by the commissioner of Varanasi division.

The BHU and all undergraduate colleges have been closed till October 2 in view of the prevailing tension on campus. Hostellers have been asked to vacate the hostels by late Sunday night.

BHU vice-chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi justified the police action by saying he had information that some “outsiders” were trying to create trouble on the campus. He said he would upgrade the security for girl students.

UP Congress chief Raj Babbar, who reached Varanasi on Sunday to meet the protesting students, was detained and prevented from going to the trouble-hit campus. The Samajwadi Party is also sending an eight-member team to Varanasi to find out the truth about the situation.

The students had been protesting for the past two days and had wanted to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s two-day visit to Varanasi but were not allowed to move out of the campus.

According to reports, students from the boys’ hostels joined the protesting girl students and tried to enter the vice-chancellor’s residence. The police then tried to stop them and the students pelted stones and petrol bombs at the police and paramilitary forces, after which the police resorted to a lathicharge.

Reports of some students being injured in the incident further aggravated the situation. Surprisingly, there were no women police deployed at the spot even though most of the protestors were girl students.

Varanasi SSP R.K. Bhardwaj said a heavy police force has been deployed at BHU and SP (City) Dinesh Singh was camping on the spot in view of the campus violence.

Trouble had started brewing on the campus on Friday when the girls held a 13-hour demonstration to protest against the sexual harassment of a girl student near the Bharat Kala Bhavan. The girl was allegedly harassed by two male students and the security personnel standing nearby had refused to come to her rescue. When she reported the matter to the proctor, he asked her why she had stayed out of the hostel after sunset.

The girl went back and informed the other girls of the incident and the response of the authorities. The girls on Friday staged a demonstration and some of them even tonsured their heads to register their protest.

Their charter of demands included round-the-clock security, making security personnel accountable for untoward incidents targeting girl students, proper lighting arrangements on routes leading to their hostels, a CCTV network, proper checking at all entry gates, recruitment of women security personnel and formation of a gender sensitisation committee.

The girls demanded that the vice-chancellor talk to them at the protest venue but no BHU officials had met them till Friday evening. The protest had led to a change in the Prime Minister’s route during his visit to the city. The girls said the student wings of all political parties were extending support to their agitation.

BHU spokesman Rajesh Kumar Singh alleged that the girls had been provoked by those who had been ousted from the university in different episodes, including an agitation for keeping the library open round-the-clock. He alleged that the protest was politically motivated and was timed with the Prime Minister’s visit. He claimed the girl who was targeted by miscreants on Thursday evening had already met the V-C in his office.

He said the BHU had announced that a new security plan for the campus and the other demands of the students would also be met.