Ahmedabad: Five international students were injured after a mob stormed a Gujarat University hostel last night and attacked students from African countries, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, allegedly for offering namaz.
The students have said that there is no mosque on the campus, so they had gathered inside the hostel to offer taraweeh – a namaz offered at night during Ramadan. Soon after, a mob armed with sticks and knives stormed the hostel, attacked them and vandalised their rooms, the students have alleged. The students have said the security guard of the hostel tried to stop the mob, but failed.
A student from Afghanistan said people in the mob raised slogans and asked them who had allowed them to offer namaz in the hostel. “They attacked us inside the rooms too. They broke laptops, phones and damaged bikes,” he said.
The student said the five injured students include one each from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan and two from African countries. “Police arrived half an hour after the incident. By then, the mob had fled. The injured students are in hospital and have informed the embassies.”
Visuals shared on social media showed damaged bikes, broken laptops and ravaged rooms. In some of the visuals, people are seen throwing stones at the hostel and hurling abuses at the overseas students. In the visuals, the international students are heard saying that they are “scared” and that “this is unacceptable”.
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