It is almost a month after the mob violence on foreign students on Gujarat University campus and the police are even yet to identify the 15 accused, let alone arresting them.
The foreign students were attacked for offering namaz within the Gujarat University hostel compound during Ramzan that had left many of them injured. The police are yet unaware of which organisation the assailants belong to.
Inspector Shilpa Bawa of Gujarat University police said, “We arrested five accused persons within two days of the attack and five were caught later.”
“According to the FIR, there were 25 people in the mob. Thus 15 are yet to be caught or identified. We also do not know which organisation they belong to,” she added.
On the night of March 16, the mob ransacked Block A of the Gujarat University boys’ hostelinjuring at least three foreign students — from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
The FIR, filed by a security guard, stated that while he tried to pacify the accused persons, they kept shouting and attacked the students. The FIR states that the accused first threw stones, attacked foreign students with sticks, barged into their rooms and damaged their property.
The FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (being part of unlawful assembly and sharing common object), 323 (causing hurt), 324 (causing hurt by dangerous weapon or means), 337 (hurting by rash and negligent act as to endanger others’ lives) and 447 (criminal trespass) among other charges.
The investigation revealed that a local group ‘intensified their vigilance’ after rumours surfaced about the romantic involvement of a foreign student with a local woman.
After the attack, seven foreign students, most of them from Afghanistan, complained to the university that their motorcycles, laptops, mobile phones, air conditioners and sound systems had been destroyed by the assailants. The university approved compensation of Rs 3 lakh for these students.
Gujarat University recently directed seven foreign students, six from Afghanistan and one from East Africa, to vacate the hostel rooms for overstaying.
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