Several students at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), taking out a protest on campus to express solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war, were booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday. A group of AMU students took out the protest march Sunday night from Duck Point to Babey Sir Syed Gate on the AMU campus in Aligarh.
Superintendent R Shekhar Pathak in a statement said police have booked several students in the matter. But four students – Aatif, Khalid, Kaamran, and Naved Chaudhry – are the ones named in the FIR, he said.
The FIR mentions that the students marched in "support" of a "terrorist group." Police said the protestors had not taken any prior permission for their march. Security arrangements on the campus have also been tightened as a precautionary measure.
The students have been booked under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), and 505(statements inducing public mischief) of the IPC.
The case was lodged after Aligarh BJP MP Satish Gautam’s statement that he had asked police and the AMU acting vice Chancellor to take stringent action against the protesters.
Israel declared a “state of war” with Hamas after a surprise missile strike by the Palestinian extremist group which rules the Gaza Strip, on Saturday morning.
More than 700 people, including soldiers, have been killed and more than 2,100 injured in Israel. On the Palestinian side, more than 500 lives have been lost and nearly 3,000 more have been injured in Israel’s counterattacks. It has been deemed one of the deadliest war in at least 50 years.
