Cotton College students attack journos, women police personnel

A section of students of the prestigious Cotton College here allegedly attacked media persons and molested Assam Police women commando unit personnel in front of Guwahati Railway Station in the wee hours today.
The incident prompted education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to seek a report from the century old college's authority on the incident.
Commissioner of Police Guwahati Mukesh Agarwal told reporters today that police cases have been received from various quarters on the incident about vandalism, damage to vehicles and two women commandos being attacked.
"Our investigation is on, we met the college authority and will proceed as per the laid down system for taking lawful action against the culprits," Agarwal said.

The commandos attacked in the fracas told journalists that a group of over 250 students armed with bricks, bamboo and hockey sticks came out of their college hostel and attacked news channels reporters, broke their cameras and vehicles, including some other vehicles.
"As we were returning from our duty in Chandmari police station in our police vehicle around 1 AM, we saw a huge gathering of the armed students attacking media persons.

"To control the situation I told the students they can tell us what their problem was," one of the women commandos said.
"Deriding us they attacked us and even tore my uniform in the scuffle. They threw bricks at us, beat up and injured the civilian driver of our vehicle, besides damaging other vehicles," she said.

Stating that the GRP in the railway station rescued the women police personnel from the violent students, another commando claimed the irate students refused to listen to the senior police officers who arrived at the site.
The teacher in-charge of the boys hostel said an inquiry would be held into the incident by the college authority.
Private cab drivers and owners associations have also filed police cases for damage to over 50 of their vehicles vandalised by the students.
Responding to reporters' questions on what action would be taken on the violent students, Sarma said "I will immediately seek a report from the principal of the college. Till we receive a report, it is difficult to comment without hearing both sides."

One of the TV news channels claimed that the students attacked the media persons with rods, cricket bats and hockey sticks and its reporter Afnur Ali was seriously injured in the incident and has been admitted to the Gauhati Medical College Hospital.
The Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA), Journalists Association of Assam (JAA) and the National Union of Journalist India have condemned the attack on journalists.
An EMFA press statement said it "strongly condemns the vandalism engineered by a section of youths targeting media persons in front of Guwahati Railway Station and urges the authority to nab the culprits immediately.

"The hostel boarders targeted television journalists from various news channels, who went to the location following the clashes, where at least two media persons received serious injuries and few cameras got damaged," the statement said.
"We urge the police to take prompt action to identify and bring those hooligans under the law," it said adding, EMFA would continue pursuing for a special protection law for media persons on duty to deal with similar situations.
JAA and NUJI in another statement said "We are extremely concerned about the rise in attacks on journalists in Guwahati and call on the Assam Government with the authority of Cotton College to take immediate action."

The statement issued by JAA general secretary and NUJI national secretary (East zone India) Bhupen Goswami expressed grave concern regarding the increasing number of attacks on the journalists of the state.
The JAA and NUJI further appealed Guwahati Police Commissioner Mukesh Agarwal for his personal initiative to immediately nab the culprits.