A group of people stormed the Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad late on Saturday and attacked international students who were offering namaz inside the premises, injuring five people during the melee, prompting the state police to begin a high-level probe on Sunday and arrest two men, Hindustan Times reported on March 18.
Two students – one from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan – were reportedly hospitalized after the attack, videos of which did the rounds on social media and drew widespread condemnation.
Police said they had arrested two people, Hitesh Mewada and Bharat Patel, both residents of Ahmedabad, for their alleged role in the attack, adding that they were on the hunt for more suspects.
Senior officers said the incident took place around 10.30pm on Saturday, when around 25 people broke into A Block of the hostel, which houses around 75 of Gujarat University’s 300 international students.
Some students were reportedly sitting on a platform (within the hostel premises), offering Taraveh (a special prayer offered during the month of Ramadan) when the group entered, asked why they were praying there and told them to go to a mosque instead.
This reportedly led to a verbal altercation that then “escalated into stone-pelting and physical violence. Some people in the group then barged into the rooms and began vandalizing property.
An Afghan student reportedly said the men were shouting “Jai Shri Ram” as they “pushed the security guard out” of the building. “Other international students who came to help were also attacked. Their rooms were ransacked and their personal devices, including laptops and cellphones damaged. Five students, including two from South Africa and one each from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka, have been injured,” the student was cited as saying.
“There are many videos of stone pelting and other incidents of vandalism. A video has surfaced where a university student is seen slapping the outsiders who had entered the hostel premises. We are conducting a fair and neutral investigation, and the government is also of the view that strong action should be taken against those responsible for the violence,” said GS Malik, Ahmedabad commissioner of police, according to Hindustan Times.
Gujarat Police filed a case on Sunday night and booked the two arrested men under a slew of sections of the Indian Penal Code.
