A security guard fired and allegedly injured a student at Allahabad University on Monday during a fracas at a campus gate where students were having their IDs checked before entry — a measure enforced following unrest over a fee hike.
The students had till late evening been unable to identify the injured student, who they said had been hit in the right arm during the 3pm firing and taken to a hospital by others present. Police confirmed the firing by a guard but not any injury. The students accused chief proctor Harsh Kumar of ordering the guards to cane the students and then to fire, but Kumar told reporters he wasn’t present at the site.
Eyewitnesses said that after the students called the police and the media following the firing, over 50 of the about200 guards on duty on the campus assembled at the site and threw stones, injuring several students and policemen as well as a journalist.
Students, already incensed over fee hikes, then went on the rampage on the campus, vandalising vehicles and torching two motorcycles, while the police appealed for calm. There had been no statement from the university management till late evening.
Rakesh Kumar, a third-year undergraduate student, told reporters the central university kept all its gates locked since the fee hike protest, in the form of a relay sit-in from September 5, turned violent on September 20 with vehicles, gates and buildings damaged on the campus. Anyone wishing to enter the campus now has to establish identity and business.
“We have to wait 15 to 30 minutes in the queue. Today, Vivekanand Pathak, a former student leader, wanted to go to the bank on the campus where he has an account. But a guard began beating him at the chief proctor’s behest,” Rakesh said.
“Later, one of the guards fired, injuring one student. He was taken to hospital. We are trying to locate him.”
The students said the guard fired “12 to 15 rounds”, mostly in the air. Later, the guards baton-charged the students.
Ajit Patel, a postgraduate student, claimed the chief proctor had asked the guard to fire.
“Harsh Kumar Sir was there, asking every student to show their identity card before allowing entry through a small gate. The entry was slow and 20-odd students got restless and asked a guard to open the main gate,” Patel said.
“A guard hit Pathak in the head and he began bleeding. Another guard fired at us. One student received a bullet injury.”
A police officer from Allahabad, requesting anonymity, said “the firing and baton charge injured two students”. Then, when the force and the media arrived, “the guards pelted them with stones for 30 minutes, injuring a dozen students, four policemen and at least one journalist”.
The guards allegedly involved in the attack, all employed by a private agency, later fled the campus.
Akash Kulhare, additional commissioner of police, Allahabad, said: “We are trying to identify the guards and book them.”
Abhyuday Singh, a postgraduate student, said that apart from a rollback of the fee hikes, the students now wanted the chief proctor suspended and the guards arrested.
“We are frustrated with the university administration’s attitude. We have been on a (relay) dharna below a tent in the university since September 5, and our anger is growing,” he said.
The university had on August 31 raised BA and BCom fees per semester from Rs 975 to Rs 3,701 and Rs 3,901, respectively. The BSc fees were increased from Rs 1,125 to Rs 4,151 per semester, and the MA and MSc fees from Rs 1,375 and Rs 1,961 to Rs 4,651 and Rs 6,001.
The September 20 vandalism happened after vice-chancellor Sangeeta Srivastava refused to meet the agitating students.
Srivastava had at the time said in a statement: “The fees for new students, who will join in the next session (2022-23), has been increased. It will not affect the present students. It is not my personal decision; we need money to run the university.”
In the evening, news channels showed knots of police personnel and students moving on the campus. The police were seen requesting students not to resort to violence.
