NEW DELHI: The police moved into evict Jamia Millia University students from their hostels in the early hours of May 22.
According to the university administration 367 students were evicted from the four hostels of which 51 were outsiders.
The eviction was carried out in the presence of the registrar warrens a few professors and a house of 300 policemen
The police arrested five students during the eviction and booked them under preventive sections of the Criminal Procedure Code and remanded them to judicial custody.
They include Ashraf Ali Gayoom Ali Rafiq Ali Tehscen and Abdul Hanan.
The students had been demanding the resignation of Pro Vice Chancellor Mushirul Hasan who had recommended the lifting of ban on Satanic Verses.
Busloads of students were escorted from the university premises in DTC buses already arranged by the authorities. The authorities also gave allowances to students from out station areas to enable them to return home.
Some agitated students who claimed to have run back from ISBT and the railway station huddled in groups outside the hostels criticizing the eviction move.
The students claimed that about four policemen entered cach room at4 am and forcibly evicted them.
“We were not even allowed to wear our shoes. We had to move in the state we were in” said a student.
The police however maintained that the operation was peaceful. According to them the eviction took place at 6 pm.
While the women were not evicted the men were evicted from the Pink House the White House the S R K hostel as well as the dormitories
The hostels wore a deserted I look with locks on all the doors and dinner trays unpicked from outside the rooms.
“The police even had the audacity to ask me if I possessed any kattas pistols or AK-47s” Raju a student said “We are here to study not to keep weapons”
Another student was convinced that the Vice-Chancellor had ordered the eviction out of sheer frustration and cowardice.
“The students did not allow the Vice-Chancellor to enter the college premises this was his way to retaliate” Abdul Wahab added.
According to the students there is no rule to evict students during the summer vacation.
“We are determined to continue the agitation even if it means staying with friends in the locality” the students said.
President of the Jamia Teachers Association A M Khan criticized the move of the Vice-Chancellor to call in the police for eviction at a time when the students had withdrawn the agitation.
The hostel authorities were not even taken into confidence before the eviction he said.
Vice-Chancellor Bashiruddin Ahmad had requested the Lt. Governor to intervene and had asked the police to evict the students two weeks back.
Police Commissioner M.B.Kaushal pointed out that since the summer vacations had begun this was the right time for the police to move in
An intervention earlier may have led to a big flare-up he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992
