District admin to discuss issue with Sharda University regarding clash in its campus

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration held a meeting with the Sharda University management Friday to discuss the fight that broke out on its campus in Greater Noida between groups of Indian and Afghan students, officials said.

Over 350 students, including Indians and Afghans, were booked for rioting and related offences after the clash during which a student from Kashmir got roughed up.

Thursday's incident followed a scuffle on Monday, the purported video of which had surfaced on social media.

Three Afghan students were suspended over the Monday scuffle and the university had announced shutting classes till Sunday, while the mid-term was examinations deferred, according to officials.

District Magistrate Brajesh Narain Singh said the Sharda University management has been asked to bring the two confronting sides to the table and ensure dialogue between them in order to defuse the tension.

“India and Afghanistan are friendly countries. The university officials have been asked to get the students from both sides to talk so that cordial relations can be restored among them. "They have been told to tell the students to concentrate on their studies and focus on upcoming examinations,” Singh told PTI.

The administration has also asked the university to restrict entry of outsiders, particularly those making “communal statements and inflammatory remarks”, he said.

Referring to the purported videos being circulated on social media related to incident at the university, Singh said police would be asked to put a check on people indulging in making such comments.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal and former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah also expressed concern over the incident in western Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida and sought action from the Centre and the state government.

The governor spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday morning and urged him to ensure that Kashmiri students are provided a safe and secure environment in the educational institutions of the state, an official spokesperson said.

Mufti tweeted, “Urge PMO India, (UP chief minister) Yogi Adityanath and (Union Home Minister) Rajnath Singh ji to take strict action against the culprits and ensure safety of students from J&K."

“This requires a proper and impartial investigation. Let the facts be brought out and the guilty persons punished. I hope (Union Home minister) Rajnath Singh and (the) Home Ministry will direct the UP government and Noida Police to reassure the students while the investigation proceeds,” Abdullah tweeted.

A police official Thursday told PTI that no official complaint was lodged about the clash in which one Indian student from Kashmir suffered injuries and was taken to a hospital.

The police force was deployed outside the university along with security personnel of the PAC. The university had also stepped up security on its premises and denied entry to outsiders, including the press.

“The police have taken the cognisance of the case on its own. The Indian student has suffered minor injuries, more of punches and slaps, but was sent for medical examination so that it could be checked if there is any internal injury or not,” the official had said.

“We have booked 350-400 students, Indians and Afghans both, and we are probing the matter. Students are being identified on the basis of the footage that has surfaced and we will soon quiz them and initiate action,” he added.

The official said the case was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), and related offences.

The FIR was registered at the Knowledge Park police station.

Police have also charged the students under the Section 7 of The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, which pertains to any act that impedes another person from doing what they can rightfully do, using intimidation, he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)