Tension mounts in BHU after police crackdown on students

VARANASI/NEWDELHI: Tension ran high at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on Sunday after an overnight police crackdown on students demonstrating against an alleged mole station on the campus and demanding bringing the culprits to justice.

Several students, mostly women, and policemen were wounded in clashes after university guard sand cops canecharged protesters in front of the vice chancellor’ s home and at the main entrance to the century-old institution’s sprawling campus around midnight.

“A lot of students arrived at the trauma centre and the situation is tense, but there are no major injuries ,” aBHU hospital official said.

The fracas forced the university to bring forward its D us se hr a break by three days to September 25. Several other Uttar Pradesh universities, too, advanced their festival holidays to prevent the unrest from spreading to their institutes.

The campus unrest triggered a political blame game as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Sam ajwa di Party chief Ak hi le sh Yadav hit out at the BJP-led government of Yogi Adityanath.

Chief minister Adi ty ana th has asked for a report on the situation, officials said.