ANHAD launches signature campaign in support of Panikkar

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) An activist group, Act Now for Harmony And Democracy (ANHAD), today launched a signature campaign against the assault on Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) Professor and suspended Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts Shivaji Panikkar by an irate mob in Ahmedabad.

ANHAD, working for issues related to the communalism in India has launched the signature campaign to demand the arrest of the attackers on Prof Panikkar and to ''stop such shameful acts in the country.'' Alumuni of M S University, Baroda has sent a memorandum to Gujarat Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma appealing ''for the dismissal of charges against Mr Chandramohan, for unconditional and immediate revocation of suspension of Prof Shivaji Pannikkar, for appropiate legal actions against Mr Niraj Jain, for legal action against the culprits involved in the shameful attack on Prof Panikkar.'' Ms Shabnam Hashmi, the founder activist of ANHAD working in Gujarat, released the photographs of the July 6 mob attack, in a press conference today.

Prof Panikkar was attacked by a group of mob, while he was in the St' Xaviers School in Ahmedabad to inaugurate an audio-visual painting exhibition, of selected entries of some school children and media students across the country, organised by ANHAD in the Student Film Festival.

The photographs show the aggressive and furious mood of the group vandalising the function, throwing stones at Panikkar's car and breaking the glasses of the car.

UNI