In an incident of violence which could potentially jeopardise the education of over 30,000 students of Aligarh Muslim University, one student was killed and another seriously injured on Saturday night when groups of students engaged in firing and clashed with each other in AMU campus.
The warring students belonging from regional groups, also set on fire the Proctor's office in which crucial documents were lost.
The injured individual who was identified as Mohammad Wakif, an aspirant who had applied for admissions in AMU, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Delhi on Sunday.
While the police officials and the university authorities are yet to find out the reason behind the violence, the AMU Vice Chancellor Lt General ( retd) Zameer Uddin Shah on Sunday announced a "high level" prove to investigate the violence which started from a minor clash and series of arguments between students on Friday near the university library. Police officials were going through the CCTV footage to identify the students who engaged in violence and burnt three vehicles on fire near the VC residence in the campus.
According to local sources at least two students sustained bullet injuries when the police fired in air to control the situation.
Mehtab, the former student who was killed in the clash, was suspended and belonged to Ghazipur district of UP. Sources in the university told The Hindu at the clash was between students from Ghazipur, Sambhal and Azamgarh.
"The tension between students and former students belonging to Sambhal, Azamgarh and Ghazipur has been simmering for quite some time now. And the violence which we saw on Saturday was result of an ongoing war of ego between these warring groups of regional students," said a university official.
"The reason behind the clash is yet not known but the AMU VC has just announced a high level probe by an external agency to investigate the matter," said the university spokesperson Rahat Abrar.
In the meet of the top university officials, it was decided to "regulate the timing of availability of internet and WiFi services". Internet services will not be available to the students between 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. in order to discourage students from engaging in "frivolous activities" said Mr. Abrar.
According to the DIG (Aligarh range) Govind Agarwal who led the police operation against the violence, the clash started because a resident of Mumtaz hostel was assaulted and his room was set on fire on Saturday evening.
As soon as the news of the assault on Mumtaz hostel resident spread in the campus, students belonging to rival factions clashed near the Proctor's office. The students also engaged in arson and torching the Proctor’s office besides setting on fire over half a dozen motorcycles which were parked near the proctor's office.
Police on Sunday registered a case against eight individuals, most of whom are former students and outsiders.
The district magistrate of Aligarh, Balkar Singh told the media that the entrance exam for the engineering course was conducted successfully without any further violence but an uneasy calm prevailed the campus. Heavy security personnel have been deployed in the campus in view of the tension and in order to prevent any possibility of further violence.
