Three students of Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh Muslim University on Thursday have been allegedly beaten up by Aligarh Railway Police personnel in the station toilet, when asked for assistance.
According to Shahidul Islam, one of the victims, they were at the station to see off their friends, who were in town to appear for their PhD Entrance Test.
The train coaches were flooded with passengers, as many trains were cancelled due to Agipath protests across India.
The students sought help from police to help their friends settle in their reserved seats to which a policemen replied,” ye UP hai, yahan aisa hi hota hai” (This is Uttar Pradesh, this is what happens here).
While speaking to Maktoob, Shahidul claimed that police personnel denied assistance and asked them to come out of the platform.
“They took us towards the toilets. One of our friends resisted going there after which the Police personnel thrashed us towards the wall and started beating us brutally and said “Ye Mamta ka Bangal nhi hai, ye Yogi ka UP hai yahan zyada bologe to tod diye jaoge” (“This is not Mamata’s Bengal, this is Yogi’s UP, if you speak more here, you will be beaten badly.”)
“We were telling the policemen that we are like your children, yet they did not listen, kept abusing our mothers and sisters, calling us goondas and beating us with sticks for 30 minutes in a toilet room. We are mentally disturbed by what happened in the night,” Shahidul told Maktoob.
One of the students was seriously injured and admitted to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital in Aligarh. Students claimed they were beaten because of their Muslim Identity. Police also raised anti-Muslim slurs against them.
Vistims shared videos with Maktoob where they could be see visibly injured.
After the incident, the students staged a sit-in protest demanding the suspension of the police personnel and filed an FIR.
