One of the attackers, caught by students, chasing students with nail-studded stick
Students of Burdwan University were beaten up with nail-studded batons on Friday, allegedly by outsiders linked to the ruling Trinamool party.
The students, a few of who had gone on hunger strike, say they were so frightened by the attack that they fled without filing a police complaint but one of the attackers they had caught said a Trinamool leader had called him to help disperse the protesters.
Trinamool denied any role in the incident. Students want the vice-chancellor to take immediate steps. The vice-chancellor was unavailable for comments.
Clashes erupted around 7 pm when some protesting students were blocking the university gate. A group of men suddenly rushed at them with batons. Students, including girls, fled in all directions on the road in front of the university gate.
Some students managed to catch one of the attackers in a red-striped T shirt with a baton in his hand. Identifying himself as Keshto, he told them he was a Trinamool worker and had been called to the campus by a Trinamool leader to help disperse protesting students.
Shantanu Chakraborty, a student from Durgapur, said, "He told us he had been asked to come by a Trinamool leader. He was speaking in front of cameras. But he managed to flee."
A girl who managed to grab the nail-studded baton that man had been carrying said, "Can you imagine what could have happened if this lathi had hit any one of us?"
Some 500 students were on campus Friday to support a dozen colleagues on hunger strike...They said they had no links with any political party but had come to protest errors in 2nd year exam results and demand that 3rd year exams be put off. Trinamool says the issues are valid but had no role in Friday's clash.
"There have been problems with the results and the exams have already been put off from 18 March to 28 March," said Ashok Rudra, chief of Trinamool Chatra Parishad who had led a rally at Burdwan University on Wednesday. "But we had nothing to do with yesterday's clash. Some students from Jadavpur University and Presidency are going to Burdwan to provoke students there," he added.
On Tuesday, police lathicharged a rally by the CPM's student wing, SFI, after officials complained they were ransacking university property. The SFI denied any provocation. The police action was widely condemned.