Cops deployed at Student Centre

A day after students created a ruckus outside the Dean Students Welfare (DSW) office on the Panjab University campus while protesting the death of a student, the police took over security at the Student Centre. The police remained present on the campus to prevent any untoward incident.

“The police force is not going to be withdrawn anytime soon. The authorities are in regular touch with the police officials, and any development regarding the same will be announced soon,” said a university official. Sources in the university claimed that the police were going to set up a makeshift beat box at the Student Centre, considering the regular footfall of outsiders. “The incident was very unfortunate and it was a collective failure of the student political groups and the university authorities. If the university had decided to shift all star nights to Sector 25, they must have raised the proper infrastructure. Also, when two star events were cancelled considering security issues, there was no need to organise the third show. The student groups could have waited to get a proper place to host such events. The Sector 25 campus is surrounded by Sector 24, Sector 25. The place is easily accessible to the highway leading to Punjab border,” said Pritish, a student. A temporary entrance towards the Sector 25 Colony created for the students of the government school located on the campus is one of the major concerns for the authorities.

Yesterday, a group of students, led by some political groups, protested at the DSW office after 22-year-old Aditya Thakur, a second year student of computer science engineering at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), succumbed to stab injuries. He and his friends were attacked with a knife by youngsters during a concert on the South Campus on Friday night.

Protests begin

A series of protests started across the campus as student leaders blamed the university authorities for Aditya Thakur’s death. They have demanded the resignation of several officials, including the DSW and the Chief Security Officer. Vice-president of Panjab University Campus Students Council Archit Garg announced that he would resign from his post if the authorities failed to take action in this case.