JNU students refuse to call off hunger strike

New Delhi, July 7 (UNI) Fasting students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have turned down the suggestion of the management to call of their agitation and said the hunger strike will end only when they get a ''concrete assurance on their demands''. ''We cannot end the strike without an assurance...they want us to call it off first and then initiate a dialogue But what is the guarantee that they will have a discussion with us once we call off our agitation,'' JNU Students' Union general secretary Sandeep Singh said.

Six students have been on an indefinite hunger strike for the past week, demanding withdrawal of show-cause notice to 11 students.

The University served show-cause notices on 11 students on June 22 for their alleged involvement in the February 19 incident in which Registrar Avais Ahmad was illegally confined in his car for over six hours.

While three students were rusticated for four semesters, the four others were rusticated for a year. Three office-bearers of the JNU Students' Union-- president Dhananjay Tripathi, General Secretary Sandeep Singh and joint secretary Jyotsna Singh --were fined Rs 2,000 each.

Dean of Students' Welfare R K Kale and Associate Dean of Students' Welfare V K Jain had met the agitation students again on Friday and asked them to call off their strike.

UNI