Alarmed by the students’ agitations showing increasingly violent trends before the December 11 student union polls at Patna University, the police on Sunday raided several hostels on the campus and found bomb-making material. Three students were arrested.
Violent clashes in the PU campus by hostel boarders affiliated to two rival students’ organisations on Saturday, three days after a series of crude bomb blasts had occurred during a similar clash between students, led the police to raid several hostels. The varsity authorities, who had earlier threatened to recommend cancellation of the polls unless the violent agitations subsided, had sought greater police assistance to ensure a peaceful campaign and polls, being held after 28 years.
“We raided the hostels after complains about wrongful activities taking place in some of them. Several objectionable items, including material used to make bombs, were recovered. We are trying to cleanse the hostels and cooperating with the university authorities to ensure free and fair polls,” said Patna SP (City) Jayant Kant. The hostels raided included prominent ones like Jackson Hostel and Minto Hostel.
Six students from the Saidpur Hostel were named in an FIR for Saturday’s clashes and vandalism near Faraday Hostel, in which hockey sticks and metal rods were used and several vehicles, including some belonging to journalists, were damaged. PU administration sources said nearly all hostels have long been infiltrated by “anti-social elements having nothing to do with either the university or education”.
The passive role of the police during a series of recent clashes on the PU campus has come in for criticism from several students’ organisations and professors.
Policemen deployed on the campus allegedly remained quiet onlookers even as students clashed armed with sticks and iron rods on Saturday. As the past few incidents have shown, little action has been taken, either by the police or the OU authorities, after FIRs are registered against students.
“A through cleansing of the hostels must take place by PU authorities before peaceful student union polls can be hoped,” said AISF leader Sushil Kumar.