The Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) leaders began an indefinite relay hunger strike late on Saturday night.
They are demanding a judicial enquiry into alleged police inaction and the manner in which a row erupted after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satish Gautam objected to the portrait of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the students’ union office.
Exams not disrupted
The protesters, however, announced that they will not disrupt the annual and entrance examinations that began on Saturday. On Sunday, the protesters allowed the opening of the main AMU gate, which had been locked since the past 11 days, to facilitate the movement of students appearing for the engineering entrance exam.
Several students had sat on an indefinite dharna after a clash with the police on May 2 demanding action against right-wing activists, who had entered the campus and shouted slogans against Jinnah’s portrait.
Meanwhile, former Vice-Chancellor Lieutenant-General (retired) Zameer Uddin Shah alleged on Sunday that the recent attack by armed goons on campus during a visit by former Vice-President Hamid Ansari was “actually an attempt to target him by forces inimical to him”. The May 2 incident did not concern Jinnah’s portrait on AMU premises, the former V-C said in a statement here. Mr. Ansari had come to the university to receive the AMUSU life membership and deliver a lecture.
