Namaz row: Six students from Afghanistan and one from East Africa have been instructed to leave their hostel rooms at Gujarat University due to overstaying, according to an official announcement on Sunday. This decision comes weeks after the recent incident where foreign students were attacked for offering namaz on the university premises.
Following the attack on March 16, representatives from Afghanistan and Gambia visited the university to discuss safety concerns with the vice-chancellor.
'Staying in the hostel as ex-students'
Talking to PTI, the university’s vice-chancellor Neerja Gupta said, "Six students from Afghanistan and one from East Africa were asked to vacate their hostel rooms after they were found overstaying. These persons had completed their studies and were staying in the hostel as ex-students due to some pending administrative work"
Gupta said that the university has made arrangements for the students to return to their respective countries, ensuring that they no longer need to stay in the hostel.
“We have completed the required paperwork and they can now safely return to their native countries. We don't want to keep any former students in our hostel. We have informed the consulates of the respective countries, and they have also directed these students to vacate the hostel,” the vice-chancellor said.
She said that more than 300 international students are enrolled in Gujarat University.
Students attacked at Gujarat University while offering prayers
On the night of March 16, approximately two dozen individuals forcibly entered the government-run university's hostel and attacked foreign students who were offering namaz in one of the blocks during the holy month of Ramadan, as reported by the police. Following the incident, two students from Sri Lanka and Tajikistan were hospitalized.
The police have arrested two men and are looking for more after students hailing from different foreign countries were assaulted allegedly by a group of persons in the Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad for offering namaz there, police said on Sunday.
An FIR was registered against 20-25 unidentified accused persons under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, damage to property, and criminal trespass, among others, and two persons identified as Hitesh Mevada and Bharat Patel have been arrested so far, DCP (Zone 7) Tarun Duggal said.
(With PTI inputs)
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