A group of teachers, students and education workers from various universities in West Bengal on Wednesday condemned the recent "attack" on Jadavpur University students and faculty by the "ABVP and other affiliates of the Sangh Parivar".
They asked democratic-minded people and organisations, especially the academia, to stand by the JU students and faculty.
"This attack, using the pretext of a film show on the campus, was specially marked by the targeting of female students who were verbally abused and molested by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad goons," the group said in a media statement.
Referring to unrests at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Institute of Technology-Chennai, Hyderabad Central University and Film and Television Institute of India, the group said the Jadavpur incident is "part of a pattern of such attacks which is happening nationwide against centres of higher learning".
The varsity has witnessed unrest following the May 6 screening of Vivek Agnihotri's film 'Buddha in a traffic jam', triggering loud protests from a large section of left-leaning students loyal to Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union.
Following clashes on the issue, university authorities filed a police complaint against four outsiders - three of them ABVP activists - on charge of molesting female students during a commotion over open-air screening of the film.
--IANS
sgh/tsb/dg
