Members of the AMU students’ coordination committee has begun a three-day hunger strike, seeking action against police personnel for alleged brutality during an anti-CAA stir on the campus last December and withdrawal of cases against protesters.
Announcing that their 10-week-long peaceful agitation has entered a new phase, 12 students started the 72-hour hunger strike on Friday night.
Sent notices
The panel said if their demands were not met, a group of students would launch an indefinite hunger strike at the Bab-e-Syed gate of Aligarh Muslim University. They have sent a notice to the University and district authorities.
The panel has also sent copies of their notice to the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Committee spokesman Faizul Hasan told media persons that their main demand was that an FIR be registered against the members of the police force who “indulged in violence and vandalism” at the University on December 15.
“We also want withdrawal of all false cases against those students who were exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest and were being pressured by the authorities to end their agitation,” he said.
Mr. Hasan said the Chief Minister held a very important constitutional post and if he had any concrete evidence to support his charge of unprovoked violence against the AMU students, he should place that before the court instead of vilifying the institution.
“On our part, we are placing all the evidence before the court and will also do so if the government orders a judicial probe,” he said.
The students’ coordination panel is also demanding resignations of top University officials, including the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar, on grounds of moral responsibility with regard to the incident.
They are also demanding that the CCTV footage of all the incidents pertaining to the “police brutalities” be fully secured and protected.
Meanwhile, at the Eidgah grounds in the old city, women protesters, who have been on a strike against the Citizenship Amendment Act for the past three weeks, staged a dharna at the Kotwali police station. They alleged that the police prevented them from putting up a tent at the protest site on Thursday night during a hailstorm.
Senior district officials rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters.
