Tension prevails on BHU campus, students demand 'visible' action

Varanasi, Nov 3 (IANS) Tension continued to prevail at the IIT-BHU where a woman student was allegedly kissed and stripped by three unidentified men on the campus.

Claiming that people from outside were involved in the incident, protesting students were demanding that outsiders be banned from entering the campus.

“We want visible action and not mere assurances,” said one of the students.

They have also sought a wall to separate the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus.

Teaching and research work remained disrupted on Friday and Director Prof. P.K. Jain and several teachers, who had approached students for negotiations on Thursday night, were taken hostage at the Gymkhana Club grounds. The main gate exiting the grounds was closed. Meanwhile the police remained a silent spectator.

The students were adamant on demanding written assurance on security and order.

The institute, after a meeting with student representatives, said that they will pursue the proposal of a closed campus with the Ministry of Education.

"The institute shall actively pursue with the Ministry of Education and the University administration for the creation of a closed campus with restricted entry," the BHU Registrar said in a statement on Friday.

The registrar also said that security has been tightened and more CCTVs will soon be installed on the campus.

Meanwhile, Internet services were also stopped in the IIT campus in view of the protest by the students. The aim of the IIT-BHU administration was that the protest should not get much publicity.

Photos and videos of protests should not be posted on social media. The students came to know about this when they were trying to use the Internet. The students themselves informed the media about the shutdown of Internet services at the protest site.

According to a complaint lodged by the woman, she was allegedly assaulted when she was out with a friend on Wednesday night. They were near the Karman Baba temple when three men came there on a motorcycle and forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend.

The accused then stripped the woman, made a video of her, and clicked photos. They let her go after 15 minutes and took her phone number, the complaint stated.

Police said that they are conducting a probe and are also working jointly with the university administration to ensure safety on the campus.