After some foreign pupils were assaulted while performing Ramadan prayers in a school hostel, authorities in India have taken two people into custody.
Officials claim a heated debate over the location of the blessings sparked the Saturday real attack at Gujarat University in northern India.
One of the three students who received hospitalization has now been discharged.
India’s international ministry said that the Gujarat state was taking” rigid behavior” against the perpetrators.
Around two hundred persons entered the dormitory on Saturday night and criticized the students for praying in a mosque, according to GS Malik, the police director of Ahmedabad area.
” They argued over the matter, assaulting them and hurling stones. They even vandalized their bedrooms, he claimed, adding that an investigation team had been set up to look into the incident.
Investigators from BBC Gujarati who were there on Saturday reported seeing stones and damaged vehicles. Hindu spiritual phrases were sung in video that was out in front of students, vandalized cars, and pelted stones by a mob that was rifling the internet.
When three individuals entered the hostel and began questioning them, Navid Siddique, a scholar from Afghanistan who was hurt in the attack, reported to the Times of India paper that he and other individuals were offering Taraweeh, a particular weekly meditation occurring during Ramadan.
They returned with a larger crowd armed with rocks and metal pipes and attacked us after an argument broke out. He told the paper,” They assaulted individuals in their rooms, rammed their cars, and damaged home.”
Delegate, another pupil from Afghanistan, told BBC Gujarati that similar instances had happened before. ” There is a lot of risk below for students from other countries”, he alleged.
Authorities say around 300 international students- several from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and American countries- study at the university. According to reports, the wounded pupils were staying in India while receiving financial aid from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, which is supported by the federal government.
Gujarat school officials have been emailed by the BBC for remark.
Vice-chancellor of the University, Dr. Neerja A Gupta, reported to reporters over the weekend that there had been conflict between the intruders and international students for some time.
” As per the information available with me, this ( prayers ) is not the main issue”, she told reporters.
Dr. Gupta stated that foreign students would be relocated to novel, better-furnished hostels.
A Delhi police officer was suspended earlier this month after being caught on camera kicking a Arab man while offering ritual on the side of the road.
