Calicut University teachers on Friday foiled attempts by the police to arrest the students who were on a hunger strike at the university Central Library Complex.
A police team led by Dy.SP S. Abhilash reached the library on Friday morning even as the students were staging a Satyagraha. The police said they had orders from above to arrest the students.
The students, supported by a few teachers, resisted the arrest. They threatened to continue the hunger strike at the police station, if arrested. The ongoing strike by students under the Departmental Students Union (DSU) entered the 80th day on Friday.
The police took away the cots and chairs used by the students. Although the police used the language of threat at first, they changed their tone when students and teachers gathered.
‘‘It was a calculated move to destroy a peaceful strike for a genuine cause. The police came and created a scene without any provocation,’’ said P. Sivadasan, general secretary, Association of Calicut University Teachers.
