At 10.30 p.m. on March 16, Chisomo Tolani — a national of Africa’s Malawi currently pursuing his PhD in computer science at Gujarat University — was studying in his room in the university’s hostel Block A when he received a frantic call from his friend asking him to come out. As soon as he put down the phone, he heard screams and other loud noises coming from outside. Worried, he and several others from adjoining rooms rushed out to see what on earth could be happening on the usually peaceful campus, located in Ahmedabad’s Navarangpura neighbourhood.
“We saw some people brandishing sticks and beating our friends. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they were shouting and creating a commotion. Within no time, they entered several of our rooms and began vandalising our belongings. It was extremely frightening. We were all petrified and didn’t know what was going on,” he says while describing the violent attack carried out by a mob of 20 to 25 people at the hostel block that houses the foreign students studying at the university.
Around 75 of the foreign students, all belonging to different nationalities, reside in Block A, which is a three-storey building with about 50 rooms. In total, 300 foreign students study at Gujarat University under the Indian Council of Cultural Relations scholarship, of which 200 stay at the hostel, while the rest put up in private accommodation. The majority of the students hail from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and a number of African nations.
“The mob had gathered to attack our Muslim friends who were offering Ramzan prayers at night at the place they usually pray during the holy month,” Chisomo continues. “I have been staying here for over two years, and I have always seen Muslim students praying during this month,” he adds, calling the episode a “traumatic event” for all the foreign students studying at the university.
The March 16 attack left five students residing in Block A injured. Two of them — nationals of Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka — had to be hospitalised at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital and were later discharged after treatment. Of the three who sustained minor injuries, two were from African nations, while one was from Afghanistan.
“We have no idea how the mob gathered and who mobilised it, but we could see some familiar faces from the neighbouring hostel Block B, which houses local students. Most others were not recognisable and were probably outsiders. We’ve never seen them in the hostel area,” says Chisomo, who witnessed the entire incident unfold.
He adds that they began stoning the foreign students first, forcing them to go back to their rooms. “I ran back to my room and locked it from inside,” he says.
But curiously, he points out, the policemen who reached the spot did not take immediate action. “What was very shocking to my friends and I is that the police did not start catching people from the mob the moment they reached. It was as if nothing had happened, and the people who had attacked our friends were moving around freely in the presence of the police. A few of them even left on their motorbikes,” he says, adding that he and some friends took one of the injured students to the hospital in an ambulance.
According to another student witness who refused to be named, a verbal spat had broken out between the students offering namaz and the outsiders who objected to it, right before the violent assault took place. “A heated argument probably led to someone slapping another, and in no time, a huge assault was launched with sticks and stones,” the student says.
“The mob went on a huge rampage attacking students, damaging their rooms and even some vehicles in the parking lot,” he adds.
“It was a very scary night for us. We had to call our international office for help,” says Mithun Chandromohonto, a student from Bangladesh.
Police action
On Sunday, the morning following the incident, a slew of videos of the mob attack began circulating on social media. One viral clip in particular showed a few members wearing saffron scarves and raising religious slogans while attacking the students and pelting stones.
That morning, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik and Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Neerja Gupta visited the hostel and met the students. The Commissioner also briefed the media about the incident.
“Someone made a PCR call at 10.51 p.m., and police teams reached the site within five minutes, at 10.56 p.m.,” Malik told the press, adding that that he had taken “serious note of the incident” and promised “strict action”.
After the news of the assault made national headlines, the police registered a case under sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal trespass. The case has been handed over to the Crime Branch of Ahmedabad Police, and a senior officer at the Joint Police Commissioner level has been tasked with supervising the probe.
So far, only five arrests have been made — Hitesh Mewada, Bharat Patel, Kshitij Pandey, Jitendra Patel and Sahil Dudhtiuva. All are outsiders, and, with the exception of Kshitij Pandey, are residents of Ahmedabad. Pandey is a resident of Gandhidham, and works in Ahmedabad. In the FIR lodged by the police, none of the arrested persons have been identified as being associated with any right-wing outfit.
Simmering tensions
After the arrests and the interrogation of several students from the hostel’s Block B, it emerged that frictions between the foreign and local students had been developing for some time.
“Even before the mob attack, there had been some altercations between foreign students and some locals ever since the Muslim students began praying in the hostel during Ramzan. It’s possible that some local hostel students sought the help of outsiders to plan the attack,” a police official involved with the probe says.
“On that night, when the outsiders arrived on the campus near Block A, a local student was apparently slapped by an Afghan student in the heat of an argument that involved locals trying to stop the namaz from taking place. The slap led to the situation taking a violent turn,” the official adds.
The police are also examining other possible triggers, like the consumption of non-vegetarian food, which was allegedly another matter of contention between the locals and foreigners. The foreign students, have, however, rejected this theory, and hold that the offering of namaz was the only trigger.
“I have been here for more than two years, and food is not the trigger. It was only and only our praying in the hostel that led to the violence,” Chisomo says.
“The locals wanted to disturb the prayers, and those who were praying got angry and started arguing back,” says Tahamina, a 25-year-old student from Dhaka in Bangladesh who is pursuing her MBA from the university.
Local students, after the violence broke out, also cited regular visits paid by maulvis (Muslim priests) to the Afghan students in the campus.
“We complained about such outsiders’ visits in the hostel block, but no one paid heed to us,” a local student says, alleging that some students from Afghanistan were also staying on at the campus after having completed their degree.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, out of the seven students from Afghanistan, four have completed their courses, while three are regular students. There is no clarity on whether the four ex-students continue to stay at the hostel.
Damage control
After the violence, university authorities removed the coordinator of the Study Abroad Programme (SAP), and within three days, all foreign students were shifted to a new hostel block.
“Besides the police probe, we have launched our own internal investigation on the matter. The three-member panel will submit its report to the university. We have also constituted a foreign student advisory panel, which includes a new SAP coordinator, a legal cell assistant registrar, and a Gujarat University Lokpal,” Dr. Gupta says.
The new hostel block that now houses the foreign students has round-the-clock security, with the additional deployment of ex-Army soldiers to prevent outsiders from entering the premises.
While some of the students are still reeling from the violence, most have expressed satisfaction at the university’s prompt action. “We are feeling more relaxed now,” says Aungkon Roy, another student from Bangladesh.
Officials from the Union Ministry of External Affairs also dialled top officials in Gandhinagar over the international ramifications of the incident, and demanded swift police action. On March 21, Afghanistan’s consul-general to India Zakia Wardak visited the university to discuss tighter security for the foreign students.
“This episode has tarnished our image, and we have to work to ensure that it is never repeated. Being the founder of Gujarat University’s department for foreign students, it is so much more painful for me to process, given that we have never even had a minor scuffle on the campus since 2005. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, there were almost 400 foreign students here, and during Ramzan, the varsity authorities made special arrangements to deliver fruit to the Muslim students at 4 a.m. in the morning,” Vice-Chancellor Gupta says.
Dr. Gupta adds that the university campus is populated by not only Muslim students, but also Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus from various countries. No communal incident has ever taken place, she says.
Police, however, are still tight-lipped on the presence of the mob that carried out the assault. “The investigation is under way, and we cannot divulge any details at this stage,” a senior officer tells The Hindu.
But some students still dwell on the alleged inactivity on the part of the police when the violence unfolded. “It’s a puzzle for us as to why the policemen initially behaved like mute spectators when the mob went on the rampage,” says Chisomo, falling silent when asked if he thinks a police probe will unveil the truth and deliver justice.
