Members of a students’ union break chairs ourside the senate hall of Patna University on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 25: Campuses turned into battlefields today as “unknown assailants” attacked students and hurled bombs, leaving at least 12 of them wounded.

The first attack occurred around 9.30am on the Patna University campus where the senate meeting was being held, on the agenda being the syndicate elections. Outside the senate hall, students’ wings of different political parties were protesting against the university for not holding students’ union elections.

“The university regularly has the senate and syndicate elections. But the student union elections are pending for 28 years. Also, there is no representation of the students in the senate. We were protesting today in front of the senate hall against this. There were around 250 students and at least 10 of them were standing at a distance from the protest site. This was when a group of men suddenly barged in and attacked them with sticks. Before anyone could realise what was happening, these men badly beat up the students. This angered the students, who retaliated,” said Ranjan Kumar, the state president of the JD(U) student wing. He alleged that the university had “hired” thugs to beat the students.

The enraged students started to ransack whatever they could find and broke more than 50 chairs lined outside the senate hall.

“Four students have suffered injuries and they were taken to a private nursing home for treatment after which they were discharged,” Ranjan added.

Three hours later, the campuses flared up again, this time at Patna College, barely 100 metres from the university.

Members of the AISA (All India Students’ Association) were holding a parallel students’ senate meeting at the Patna College campus, their chief demand also being the holding of the union elections.

“Around 12.30pm, a large group of men rushed inside the college campus and attacked us. They exploded at least three bombs and fired a shot at us and then beat us badly with sticks and rods. Markande Pandey, a senior member of AISA, was singled out and badly beaten with sticks. The assault lasted for over 20 minutes after which the attackers fled,” a student of the college, who refused to be named, said.

At least eight students suffered injuries. “The condition of Markande is serious and he is admitted at PMCH. The other students received treatment and have been discharged,” the student said.

Kriteshwar Prasad, the proctor of Patna University, said the violence earlier in the morning was a fallout of students getting agitated over their demands.

“I don’t know about the incident at Patna College. But outside the senate hall, no student was beaten. They just got agitated and started breaking things. The officials then made them understand and they left,” Prasad said.

Deputy superintendent of police (Town) Ramakant Prasad denied that any shots had been fired and blamed the Patna College violence on student rivalry. “The Patna College incident is a result of two groups of students fighting. Some boarders of Jackson Hostel had some problems with students representing AISA. While the meeting was on, they came in and tried to stop the meeting, which led to the fight. The blast was a result of crackers being burst. Markande Pandey, who is at PMCH, is lodging a FIR and the police will take action against those named accused,” he said.