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Hindu Jagaran Manch attackers breached police barricades and reached SRFTI’s gates, just a week after violence at the institute.
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Students had warned authorities in advance that Sunday’s mobilisation could threaten their safety, but police failed to take action.
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Attackers’ calls for ‘retribution’ have heightened concerns among students already demanding safety, transparency and accountability.
A week after violence rocked Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), the Hindu Jagaran Manch returned to the institute on Sunday, 4 October, ostensibly to protest the alleged ‘disrespect of Bharat Mata and Swami Vivekananda’. The return of the protesters has raised fresh concerns over the safety of students and faculty, particularly after the organisation described the latest mobilisation as a response to an alleged insult and spoke of “retribution”.
The students had already warned authorities that the proposed mobilisation could threaten students, staff and faculty, and had specifically urged the administration to take preventive measures. Yet the police were unable to prevent thugs from reaching the institute’s gates, where they broke through barricades, tried to force open the gates and traded brickbats and bottles with people inside.
The language of “retribution” is particularly disturbing because Sunday’s rally came just seven days after the earlier violence, when students had already complained about their safety.
The police had been warned that the rally would reach SRFTI. Barricades had been placed some distance from the campus and the gates had been shut. But the attackers pushed through the barricades and marched towards the institute. At the main gate, members of the Hindu Jagaran Manch shook the gates and demanded that police open them.
Students and professors had gathered inside, some wearing helmets. Students alleged that stones, bricks and water bottles were thrown into the campus. Professor Debashis Sensharma was reportedly injured by a brick. Attackers, however, alleged that students and professors also threw bottles at them and claimed that some of their members were injured.
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