A case was lodged against four students of Aligarh Muslim University for allegedly carrying out a protest march on the campus to express solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war with Hamas, a senior officer said on Monday (October 9).
SP City R Shekhar Pathak in a statement said police have booked several students in the matter only four of whom are named. Aatif, Khalid, Kaamran, and Naved Chaudhry are the four students named in the FIR, Pathak said.
The students were booked under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), and 505(statements inducing public mischief) of the IPC.
The protest march was organised on Sunday night from Duck Point to Babey Sir Syed Gate on the University campus.
According to the police, the protestors had not sought any prior permission from the police for the march. The FIR said the students marched in "support" of a "terrorist group."
BJP reacts
BJP MP from Aligarh, Satish Gautam said in a statement that he has asked the police and the AMU acting Vice Chancellor to take strict action against the protestors.
The police have heightened the security arrangements as a precautionary measure.
Israel witnessed a surprise and unprecedented attack by Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, in its southern parts on Saturday morning.
More than 700 people, including soldiers, have been killed and more than 2,100 injured in Israel in the deadliest war for the country in at least 50 years.
Owaisi on Israel-Palestine conflict
"A late BJP leader once said about Palestine that land worth billions has been acquired. We had released a post stamp for solidarity with Palestine... This shifted when Congress came into power... The Oslo Agreement came into existence which said that in West Bank and Gaza, an independent Palestinian country would be made. It has been 30 years now... The world knows that there is the Al-Aqsa mosque there. The Gaza Strip has been blocked for the last 16 years... It is an open-air prison," Owaisi said.
(With PTI inputs)
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