NIA team at varsity for details of Joshi’s 1999 visit

AMU spokesperson Rahat Abrar confirmed that a NIA team visited the campus and collected details about the January 1999 incident. “NIA official asked about the objective of Murli Manohar Joshi’s visit in 1999 and the sequence of events which had occurred on the campus then,” Abrar said.

The NIA team talked to Abrar and H A S Zafri,who was pro vice-chancellor in 1999. It also checked the news reports published after that incident.

Abrar said that then vice-chancellor Mahmoodur Rehman had invited Joshi for a Roza iftar party at his residence on the campus. However,university students opposed Joshi’s visit and staged demonstrations on the campus. Joshi had reached the Reserve Police Lines but the district administration requested him not to visit the university,citing security reasons.

Sources said Purohit,who was arrested in 2008,had revealed during interrogation that he and his associates had planned to target AMU and got a recce conducted for planting bombs at strategic points.

Earlier in 2010,Purohit’s associate Swami Aseemanand,too,had reportedly confessed that AMU was one of their targets. Swami was arrested by the CBI in Haridwar in 2010. Following his confession,the AMU administration had asked the UP government to provide foolproof security to the university.

Then vice-chancellor Professor P K Abdul Azis in January 2011 had written a letter to UP Chief Secretary and Aligarh district magistrate seeking adequate security for the university,its students,teaching and non-teaching staff and their families.