In a quest to demand justice in the Anis Khan murder case, thousands of students of the Aliah University campus, Park Circus, today carried out a protest rally where eventually several got arrested at College Street, after a clash with the police who were hoodwinked as the protesters kept changing routes during their rally till Writers’ Building.

The Aliah students may march to Nabanna tomorrow while Presidency and Jadavpur universities were also rife with protests. The city police were left confused today as the student protesters of the Aliah Univerity campus in the city led a protest march to Writers Building but apparently had no plans to remain on their police-permitted route to evade blockades.

Thousands of students carried banners and posters with messages calling for justice and punishment of the guilty who killed Anis Khan, a former student of the university. They claimed that they will continue their protest and even march to Nabanna tomorrow if justice is delayed. The students staged an agitation in Sealdah that disrupted traffic in peak hours. Police attempted to resist them at Mahatma Gandhi Road, failing which guard walls were set up at College Street to corner the rally. The protesters began a sit-in demonstration there. A clash ensued between police and students that subsequently led to arrests and students were packed into police vans.

Many protested and accused police of acting like workers of the ruling political party. They demanded to know why no justice has been delivered even though 72 hours have passed. The police deployed their forces in large numbers. Water canon was deployed to push back the agitators. The rapid action force was called in to contain the clashes.

Meanwhile, students of both Presidency University and Jadavpur University staged agitations demanding ‘Justice for Anish’. However, matters grew far worse in Jadavpur University where the protest led to a political clash between the SFI and TMC student unions. SFI activists alleged that the TMC’s student union leader Binay Singh attacked them where two of the students received injuries which led to their hospitalisation at KPC Medical College.

The students blocked the VC’s office and began a sit demonstration demanding arrest of the TMC student union leader who they also alleged has harassed some of the women students. The College authorities who were rigid initially in giving into the student’s demands finally met a delegation from the protesters to hear their conditions of withdrawing the agitation.

The CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty has demanded that the chief minister resign immediately if she fails to deliver justice in the murder of a youth. He expressed shock and claimed that the state government is mocking justice and the people of this state through its investigation which is hogwash. Citing why this investigation is biased, he said that the SP, Howrah Soumya Roy is the husband of a Trinamool Congress MLA and hence his statements in the matter cannot be held as the truth. His role has to be investigated by an agency independent of the state which should be probing the murder of Anis Khan