New Delhi: As many as 500 students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Shillong, belonging to north and south India, were evacuated by the administration late in the evening on April 7 with the help of paramilitary forces to the Guwahati railway station. The students were evacuated due to a clash between local students and hostellers from outside the Northeast the previous night.
A brawl between two students staying in an NIT hostel took on a local versus outsider turn late in the night on April 6, with as many as 60 students from outside the Northeast trapped in their rooms for over 12 hours now.
One such student told The Wire over the phone from his room on the afternoon of April 7: “A hosteller belonging to Meghalaya was drunk and picked up a fight with a student from outside the Northeast around 10 pm. We separated them and everyone went to their rooms thereafter. However, around 1-1:30 am, about 30 boys believed to be from the Khasi Students’ Union joined that student and tried to cross over the hostel gate to attack the students from north and south India. We somehow managed to push them out. We think that the guards were also with them.”
The National Institute of Technology bus in Shillong. Credit: Special Arrangement
The student, who is from the second-year batch, said, “On informing the police, a team came to the hostel but left after a while. Since then, we have locked ourselves in the rooms and have not eaten anything. The warden, Kishore Debnath, who stays outside the hostel campus, hasn’t visited us yet. All we want at this point is to go back home safely.”
As per the latest information, seven students were injured when “local boys yet again” landed in the hostel around 4 pm on April 7 “with rods and sticks”.
“It happened in front of the dean of the institute. Seven non-local students are presently admitted in the hospital. Also, since the drunk boy who started the fight filed an FIR too, four students are in the police station right now,” said a student.
Some first-year students also said that the institute bus carrying them from the campus after their classes to their hostel inside the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) was also attacked last evening, allegedly by KSU members, while passing through the Mawlai area.
“Our bus was stoned; one student managed to phone the police on time and that is how we reached our hostel. This is not for the first time it has happened. Similar incidents have continued to happen,” said a first-year student.
On contacted, KSU president Lambokstar Margner told The Wire, “I have not heard of any such incident at the NIT campus yet. I don’t think any of our members were involved in it.”
However, an officer on duty at the Rynjah police station, which has the jurisdiction of the institute, said, “On getting to know about it, we rushed to the spot. The matter is under enquiry. Nobody has been arrested yet.”
The Wire tried multiple times to reach the hostel warden on his mobile phone and the administration of the NIT but has so far been unsuccessful to get a response.