Hyderabad/Guwahati: At least 19 students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are living in constant fear in two campuses of the National Institute of Technology at Manipur after two of them were injured in clashes between non-local students and locals. Students who spoke to Deccan Chronicle over phone said the clashes occurred on Thursday night and Friday evening.
The students said that police beat them up on Friday evening. On Saturday night, a mob threatened to kill non-locals. First year students are housed at the Langol campus and senior students at the Takyalpa campus. The academic year began about 20 days ago and the NIT has about 150 students from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and other states.
The clashes come amid heightened tempers due to an ongoing protest in Manipur to demand that the Centre implement the Inner Lime Permit system. The permits are intended to regulate the entry of non-locals into the border state.
Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and senior officials visited the campus on Saturday and assured the students of their safety. Despite this, students said, more than 100 locals gathered near the hostel and threatened to kill them.
On Sunday, a Central Reserve Police Force unit was posted there.
Students fear for life on campus
Students at the National Institute of Technology at Manipur said the trouble started on Thursday night at the Langol campus when a Bihar student questioned a Manipuri student who broke the queue. “An argument broke out between the two students after which two groups of local and non-local students were formed.
There were clashes that night and at least two Telugu students were injured,” said B. Ravi Teja, a second year student of electronics and communication and resident of Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad. At least eight students from Bihar were injured, apart from local students. The next day, a few local students brought goons from outside the campus and beat up the non-locals. “The police who came there did not touch the Manipuri students. Instead, they beat up the non-local students,” said a 17-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh who did not want to be identified.
“They were selectively attacking us. A few cops even came inside our room and beat us,” he said. “On Saturday, the Chief Minister talked to us. However, after he left, around 100 people, most of them local goons, came into our campus despite the presence of cops. We locked ourselves inside our rooms. They started threatening to kill us. It continued till 3.30 am,” said the student.
The tension spread to the other campus located at Takyalpa, where second year students are living. “We fear that we might get killed here. We want to go home,” the student said. Security sources said that some of the students from outside the state also wanted to go back to their respective homes in the wake of ongoing agitation in the state but administration is yet to take a decision. Mr Ibobi Singh said that the students who want to return will be sent back soon.
Taking cognisance to the report, the state government in an order on Sunday said, “In case of any reports of ragging, physical violence, fights, intimidation etc, the authorities of NIT Manipur must immediately take strict and prompt punitive action against the responsible students including rustication from the institute, black-listing from joining any other institution in the country or even filing of FIR in any concerned police station”.
