A Class X student of a government school in Tripura’s Sepahijala district was injured on Friday when he was assaulted by a mob for allegedly supporting the wearing of hijab at the institute, a police officer said.

The incident followed an altercation between students of two communities of the Koroimura Higher Secondary School over wearing the head scarf, in a rerun of the Karnataka hijab controversy.

The Class X student had allegedly joined other students in ransacking the headmaster’s room. These students were angry as the headmaster had asked the girls not to wear hijab, and come to school in proper uniform, the police officer said.

Following this, a mob gathered outside the school and attacked the student when he came out, injuring the teenager, a resident of Prabhurampur under the Bishalgarh police station.

He was rushed to a nearby healthcare centre, assistant inspector-general (AIG) of police, law & order, Jyotishman Das said.

“After a meeting with teachers, I recently directed all students to attend school wearing proper uniform. However, some girls... said they cannot follow this directive as wearing hijab is a religious belief,” headmaster Priyatosh Nandi told reporters.

The headmaster said that a delegation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had also met him recently and urged him to ask the students irrespective of religion to attend classes in school uniform.

As several girls continued to attend their classes wearing hijab, a group of students went to the school in saffron-coloured kurta on Thursday.

Nandi said he asked those students wearing saffron kurtas to follow the school uniform rule.