AHMEDABAD: Muslim students hailing from different foreign countries including Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan were assaulted allegedly by a group of persons in the Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad for offering namaz in the facility’s building, police said on Sunday. A video of the attack showing goons in saffron shawls has gone viral. Some students are injured and are currently admitted to SVP hospital.The incident was reported at around 10.50 pm on March 16 when nearly two dozen people barged into the (government-run) Gujarat University’s hostel and raised an objection to students from other countries offering namaz in the facility where they stayed, Police Commissioner GS Malik said.According to the students, since there is no mosque on the Ahmedabad-based campus, they had assembled inside the hostel to perform taraweeh, a nightly prayer during Ramadan. A student from Afghanistan said that a mob then came and shouted slogans, questioning their right to pray in the hostel. “They even assaulted us within our rooms, destroying laptops, phones, and vandalizing bikes,” he recounted. The student mentioned that among the five injured individuals, there is one from Afghanistan, one from Sri Lanka, one from Turkmenistan, and two from African nations.Reportedly, despite efforts by the hostel’s security guard to intervene, the assailants managed to carry out their attack.A report quoted an Afghan student who claimed that though the police arrived at the spot, they let the mob flee. “We are not safe here. We request Gujarat University to shift us to a safe place,” the student said.
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