10 hurt in SFI-ABVP clash in HP varsity

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 20

The police today arrested 12 ABVP students in connection with the clash between SFI and ABVP members at Tagore Hostel in Summer Hill last night in which more than 10 student sustained injuries.

Tension had been prevailing since evening when some SFI members had reportedly threatened a student. The fight started from the mess and both groups resorted to stone pelting causing smashing of windowpanes of the common room, sources said.

However, both student organisations were blaming each other for the incident.

The accused have been booked for rioting, armed with deadly weapons, unlawful assembly and voluntarily causing hurt, said ASP Bhajan Dev Negi, adding that the ABVP activists started the scuffle.

Documents, laptops and other electronic gadgets of some students were also burnt while a bike parked outside the hostel was damaged.

ABVP campus president of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) Ankit Jamwal said some of the students, affiliated with the SFI, who were drunk, threatened and attacked the ABVP members in the mess last night.

Blaming the police for taking action only against ABVP activists, ABVP state secretary Hema Thakur said it was the SFI activists who started the fight. She threatened to launch an agitation if the SFI activists involved in the scuffle were not arrested.

The SFI blamed the ABVP and alleged that at least 25 students were involved in the attack but the police had just arrested 12 students. Both students’ organizations held protest against each other. SFI university campus secretary Noval Thakur alleged the involvement of the VC’s in the whole episode and burnt the VC’s effigy.

ABVP students stoned

• ABVP activists, who were sitting on Summer Hill Chowk, were pelted with stones by a group of SFI students, causing injuries to many other students also
• One of the ABVP activists Deepak was injured after he was attacked with sharp-edged weapons.