Ahmedabad police arrest 3 more in Gujarat University foreign students’ assault case

The accused were part of a mob of 20-25 people who barged into the university’s international boys hostel Saturday night and allegedly assaulted five foreign students for offering namaz during Ramzan. The police had nabbed two other accused — Hitesh Rakhubhai Mewada and Bharat Damodarbhai Patel — Sunday.

According to a senior police officer, the incident turned violent when a foreign student allegedly slapped a local protesting against the namaz being offered in the hostel.

“There had been protests against the foreign students offering namaz multiple times since Ramzan commenced. We have learnt that some local students had already raised objections to the foreign students offering namaz at the platform in the A-block (hostel) courtyard, which also has an inscription in Arabic,” a top official told The Indian Express.

“There had been a verbal altercation between the foreign students and some locals earlier during which one of the local students got told off by the foreign students… The local students appear to have established contact with some others, who are not residents of the campus, to intervene in the matter,” the officer said.

“On Saturday evening, when the protestors arrived on the campus, one of the Afghan students slapped one of the locals, who was questioning the security guard about the students offering namaz in the open… That is where the matter turned violent as the protestors reacted by assaulting the students and vandalising their vehicles and belongings.”

Gujarat University V-C Prof Neerja Gupta, who has decided to impose a 10 pm “curfew” on the foreign students given that elections have been announced and they have exams, also said that the attack was a “backlash” after a foreign student slapped a local. She said the university decided to shift the foreign students out of the GU hostel block because they were in trauma and were “scared”. Gupta said the foreign students ought to have been “mentored in a better way” for cultural assimilation. “It’s not a question of religious practice, it might be a cultural practice. For example, they eat non-veg. Gujarat is primarily a vegetarian society. We have to tell them you can’t leave leftovers in the flush… So there might be (issues of) cultural sensitivity, there might be religious sensitivity. And because these are foreign students, they come into notice very quickly,” Gupta told The Indian Express.

Recounting the events of Saturday night, a 20-year old student from Ivory Coast said “the mob entered the premises and started abusing his fellow hostel mates”. “I tried to intervene, but a stone hit my hand, and another hit my back. I ran to my room to protect myself, but the mob entered our rooms, destroyed everything, and stole Rs 6,000 from me. We don’t know them, we couldn’t recognise a single face from the mob. We have not done anything wrong or provoked them in any way. I still don’t understand why they attacked us.”

Another student from Malawi shared a similar ordeal. “We were in our rooms, busy with our work, when we heard noise outside. The mob was attacking. Stones came flying into our rooms, and I was scared for my life. We are students. It is the government’s duty to keep us safe,” said the final-year student of computer science and engineering.

According to another student, he saw his “friends jumping from the first floor to save themselves from the violent mob”. “We understand there are violent people everywhere. But actions by individuals make everyone look bad,” another student remarked.

A Mozambique student expressed concerns over being labelled anti-nationals. “I don’t know what their motive was, but I read a post labelling us anti-nationals. If people here see us with hatred, I don’t think I am safe here,” he said. (Harsh Chowdhary is an intern with The Indian Express)