Braving the dust storm and rain that hit the national capital, the alumni of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) gathered in Delhi to protest the attack on the students of the institute, allegedly by members of the right-wing Hindu Yuva Vahini group.
Despite the rain and strong winds, close to 100 former students of the university staged a sit-in in a lane opposite the FICCI auditorium at Barakhamba Road.
Members of the alumni association of the Jamia Millia Islamia as well as the Jawaharlal Nehru Unversity (JNU) also joined the “silent protest”.
Holding placards denouncing the attack on the university and its students, the AMU Old Boys’ Association (AMUOBA) and others alleged that the incident was politically motivated to disrupt communal harmony.
AMUOBA president Irshad Ahmed, while speaking to mediapersons, sought a judicial inquiry into the attack earlier this month over a portrait of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the university campus.
They also demanded the suspension of the police officers who allegedly assaulted the students when they had gone to lodge an FIR against the attack, allegedly by the Hindu Yuva Vahini.
General secretary of the association Mudassir Hayat, who was also present at the protest, said the 2 May attack had nothing to do with Jinnah’s portrait as it had been hanging there since 1938.