New Delhi:
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Monday alleged the Left-affiliated groups and students from Jamia Millia Islamia were responsible for Sunday evening’s violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Manish Jangid, secretary of ABVP’s JNU unit, said he was attacked by a mob when he was going to register himself for the next semester and his left arm was fractured. “The mob was led by members of left organisations active in JNU and students of Jamia Millia Islamia. We were brutally attacked. We somehow managed to escape,” he said.
Asked how they knew the mob included Jamia Millia Islamia students, Lalit Pandey, ABVP’s central university convener, said, “The mob was throwing stones on students. Students of Jamia Millia Islamia indulge in such violence like they did in their campus. Also, we have proof of WhatsApp conversations in which Jamia students were conspiring to attack the JNU campus.”
Pandey said around 25 ABVP activists were injured. “Our members were so scared that they could not come back to their hostels on Monday night. Many of them had spent the night at a temple in Munirka,” he said.
Students in Jamia denied ABVP’s claims. “All Jamia students were at ITO when the violence was happening. It is practically not possible that we finished the violence at JNU and then assembled at ITO by 9pm. Besides, we were busy with our events on campus around CAA. How would we go to JNU?” said a member of the Jamia Coordination Committee.
{{/usCountry}}Students in Jamia denied ABVP’s claims. “All Jamia students were at ITO when the violence was happening. It is practically not possible that we finished the violence at JNU and then assembled at ITO by 9pm. Besides, we were busy with our events on campus around CAA. How would we go to JNU?” said a member of the Jamia Coordination Committee.
{{/usCountry}}Referring to a purported video earlier tweeted by ABVP, wherein JNUSU president Aishe Gosh was seen near Periyar hostel,” Jangid said, “What will Aishe (JNUSU president) say about her leading goons to the Periyar hostel, which was vandalised soon after?”
JNUSU vice-president Saket Moon denied allegations that Aishe was leading a mob near Periyar hostel. “She was, in fact, stopping the mob from entering that hostel,” he said.
Among other ABVP members who were reportedly injured in the violence were Sheshmanee Sahu and Shivam Chaurasiya. The ABVP alleged 11 of their activists were missing.
While Jangid and two more ABVP members alleged they were “brutally injured and received fractures”, an official at AIIMS Trauma Centre, where they had gone for medication, said, “Jangid was not one of those who received treatment for fractures at our centre.”
On allegations raised by JNU students that ABVP had organised the attack and invited people through WhatsApp groups, Jangid said, “This is Left propaganda. Our numbers were taken using some server and we were added in the group as admin. We are not even aware about those groups.”