November 23, 2024 08:52 (IST)
JNU row: ABVP's counter rally triggers tension in Kolkata's Jadavpur University
Kolkata, Feb 18 (IBNS): Protest and counter-protest on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) issue raised tension in front of Kolkata's prestigious Jadavpur University (JU) on Thursday.
Protesting against the arrest of JNU's student union president Kanhaiya Kumar, left students organizations held a protest rally inside JU campus on Thursday noon.
Meanwhile, condemning the anti-national slogans, which were raised from the JU students' rally in the city on Wednesday, the Kolkata units of BJP and its students' wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organized a protest march here in the afternoon.
ABVP's rally, led by BJP leaders, including Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, started from Golpark area in south Kolkata and police tried to stop the rally near Jadavpur Police Station. Breaking the police-barricades, rally reached Jadavpur University's Gate No. 4, where JU's left students organizations were agitating since hours.
Two parties demonstrated almost face-to-face for hours.
According to reports, the presence of policemen were not enough to control any untoward situation.
In the meantime, another rally of the Congress's students' wing Chhatra Parishad (CP) came to the spot and started agitation against the JNU row.
However, JU's faculties and other officials managed to take all agitating students inside the campus.
The ABVP and the CP protesters later left the spot and the hour-long tension came to an end.
During this agitation, traffic in southern part of the city was completely disrupted for hours.
Earlier, slogans in favour of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani were raised from a rally held by JU students on Tuesday and posters against the hanging of Afzal Guru and 1993 Mumbai serial blast convict Yakub Memon were found inside the JU campus on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, few ABVP activists allegedly entered JU campus from outside on Wednesday evening with Indian national flags and nationalist 'Vande Mataram' slogan. They reportedly torn all anti-national posters and vandalized notice-boards and poster-walls. When university's students tried to prevent them from ransacking, they engaged in a scuffle with them.
However, ABVP leaders denied their involvement in the incident.
The JNU in New Delhi is currently facing protests and counter protests with the police cracking down on students over the anti-India slogans raised earlier to mark the death anniversary of Parliament Attack convict Afzal Guru on its campus in the national capital.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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