Tension mounts in BHU after police crackdown on students

THE STUDENTS WERE DEMONSTRATING AGAINST AN ALLEGED MOLESTATION INCIDENT ON THE CAMPUS AND DEMANDING JUSTICE

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

Several students, mostly women, and policemen were wounded in clashes after university guards and 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,” a BHU hospital official said.

The fracas forced the university to bring forward its Dussehra 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 Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Bjp-led government of Yogi Adityanath.

Chief minister Adityanath has asked for a report on the situation, officials said.

The protests began on Friday when a group of women started a sit-in at the entrance to the university following the proctor office’s refusal to take action on a student’s complaint of molestation the previous day.