SIO activists protest over attack on AMU students

​Warangal: Several writers and activists of Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India and All India Students Federation (AISF) here on Friday staged a protest against attack on students of Aligarh Muslim University.

It may be noted that a group of activists of right-wing organisations clashed with students of the university and injured a few on Wednesday. demanding removal of a portrait of Pakistan founder and freedom fighter Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the students’ union building in the university.

The AISF activists, led by its national president Valiullah Qadri, burnt an effigy of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at Kakatiya University (KU) first gate in Hanamkonda.

Speaking on the occasion, he alleged that activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini, backed by the UP government, attacked the university students. He said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule democratic and secular values were under attack. It was sad that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students were assaulted when the former Vice President Hamid Ansari was on the campus.

Accusing the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of supporting the attackers, Qadri said the university standing committee has the power to decide whose portraits should be placed in university and not the government. It has become a practice for Hindutva outfits create unrest in varsities in the country, he said.

AISF leaders K Naresh Dravid, G Nagarjuna and others took part in the protest. SIO activists staged a demonstration at Kaloji Centre in Hanamkonda expressing solidarity to AMU students and condemning violence in AMU. Poets Anishetty Rajitha, N Raja and Anwer, KU professor Mustafa, SIO city president Syed Ahmed Ali, secretary Firdose Ali and its leaders Umar Farooq, Irshad and others were at the protest.

Speaking to presspersons, they accused the UP police of shamelessly defending the attackers while they were being violently beaten the university students to create communal tension in an institute of national importance.

Ahmed Ali and others demanded stringent punishments to those communal mobs; self-proclaimed vigilantes and the incapable police officers, who failed to control the situation. The SIO would organise a mass campaign and write to President of India to intervene to restore peace on AMU campus, Ali said.