High school students protest at AMU complex

Aligarh, Aug 21: Agitating students of Saiyyid Hamid Senior Secondary School blocked the entrance to the Aligah Muslim University administrative office complex paralyzing its normal functioning.

In a bid to end the impasse and reach out directly to the protesters, AMU V-C last evening broke the security cordon and without the assistance of any of his aides, individually spoke to the protesting students.

To look into yesterday's matter, AMU Vice-Chancellor Lt Gen (Rtd) Zameer Uddin Shah today instituted a three-member inquiry committee to probe into the circumstances and background which led to protest by students of the senior secondary school (boys).

The students were demanding the resignation of the Principal of the senior secondary school. "All genuine grievances of students will be sympathetically addressed. However, if it is found that some mischievous elements are trying to inject sectarian issues into the matter, then this will not be tolerated at any cost," Gen Shah said.

The V-C made it clear that he would not allow anybody to use religious symbolism for spreading dissent. "AMU is proud of its secular traditions and we will not accept any attempt by interested parties to sow dissention by injecting regionalism and sectarianism at any cost," he said.

A spokesman of the university said that in the past three years, major reforms have been introduced at the AMU’s higher secondary school which had earlier been in a state of turmoil for several years. The new Principal of the school Major (Retd) S M Mustafa had undertaken strong disciplinary measures apart from taking other steps for improving academic standards.

Some vested interests which had been "disturbed" were masterminding the present dissent and they had been "identified", he said. The V-C would be holding further consultations with all sections, including students, later this evening in a bid to resolve the stand off.

PTI