A protest march on Thursday condemning the alleged assault on teachers at Calcutta University blurred campus boundaries, the uniting factor being fear of becoming the next target.

Be it a teacher in a wheelchair or the university fresher, everyone that Metro spoke to among the hundreds who walked the 3km stretch from Rajabazar Science College to College Street said they found the behaviour of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad members on Calcutta University's main campus on Wednesday unacceptable and alarming.

Amit Ray, a teacher at Ghatal Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya, said he had come all the way from West Midnapore to join the protest because he knew what it was like to be the target of such an attack. The economics teacher had been assaulted by members of Trinamul's student wing earlier this year for questioning the fairness of the college election in a Facebook post.

Supriya Chanda, who teaches musicology at CU, said he felt compelled to be part of the protest in his wheelchair. "The Calcutta University teachers were staging a peaceful protest inside the senate hall. Trinamul's student supporters attacked the teachers, sullying the image of the educational institute. Nobody is safe."

Chanda was participating in a protest rally for the first time in his 15-year teaching career. An alumnus of CU, he was helped along by colleagues as the procession wound its way through APC Road, Sealdah and MG Road on its way to College Street.

The fear factor that brought together so many people isn't unfounded given the Trinamul student union's track record on campuses across Bengal.

When a Trinamul Youth Congress leader's wife was caught allegedly using unfair means to write an examination at Meghnad Saha College, in Itahar, in August 2013, the party insisted that she had been framed by the principal, who is the wife of a former CPI minister.

About 20 Trinamul supporters allegedly ransacked principal Swapna Mukherjee's office and the teachers' room in retaliation.

In January 2012, students ransacked the office of Dilip Dey Sarkar, principal of Raiganj University College, forcing him to quit.

Tarun Keswani, a researcher at Ballygunge Science College, said the Trinamul student union had tarnished the image of Calcutta University. "If I go abroad tomorrow and identify myself as a CU student, everyone would say that I represent a university where students beat up teachers. Would it look good?"

Kaninika Bose, a teacher at Deshbandhu Girls High School in Beleghata, said all teachers must unite in condemnation of what happened at CU.