A pro-Palestinian protest in English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, held October 7 evening, has led to nine students belonging to various student outfits being booked. The scuffle was allegedly between students of various campus student unions on the one side and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on the other. Six students linked to the ELFU student union and three from the ABVP have been booked. Trouble allegedly started on campus when a section of students associated with various student unions held a protest meeting condemning “genocide in Gaza”. While the “peaceful meeting” ended around 8.30 pm, students of the ABVP tore up posters and threatened organisers of the event of dire consequences, student leaders have alleged. According to an FIR by Osmania University, a scuffle then broke out and when they tried to intervene, they got caught in the melee. In their statement leaders of campus student unions said: “On October 7, the EFLU Students Union organised a peaceful gathering and march to denounce the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and display solidarity with the global movement for a free Palestine. The event concluded without incident but as the students dispersed, members affiliated with ABVP barge in on the venue, tore down solidarity posters and stamps on Kefiyyeh, and began verbally and physically assaulting pro-Palestinian demonstrators”. The ABVP, on the other hand, said that the protest was against India’s “neutral stand in the Palestine conflict” and that they merely raised “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogans to stand in solidarity with India’s foreign policy. According to the police, there were 100-150 students gathered inside the campus belonging to two warring groups. While one group was sloganeering in support of Palestine, another was sloganeering in support of India, the FIR read. The police have booked cases for obstructing police in duty and for instigating public disorder. Students of the EFLU union have demanded immediate withdrawal of cases against their protesters.
