Attacks – Others

At the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, the students’ union organised a peaceful protest under the banner ‘Remembering Babri’ on Tuesday, January 23. Even as more students were joining the protest, a group of men sporting saffron scarves entered the campus, and set the banner on fire. A few among them filmed the attack. In the video, accessed by The Wire, the men could be seen chanting “Jai Shri Ram” and one of the miscreants could be seen saying, “We would destroy not one but a thousand more Babris (mosques)”.

In the recent years, the security at FTII has been beefed up. Even for alumni, visiting the campus is not possible until details are submitted to the security standing vigil at the entrance gate. “Then how did a bunch of men, clearly not from the institute, manage to enter the campus?” asked some of the students that The Wire spoke to.

After the incident, police allegedly picked up a few students under the pretext of taking them to the nearby hospital for treatment. But they were instead taken to the Deccan police station. At 3:30 pm, when The Wire called the Deccan police station for confirmation, five students were still detailed at the police station.