Thread by @thecaravanindia

Thread | A doctoral research scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, who lives in the varsity's Sabarmati hostel told The Caravan she first heard ruckus outside the room between 6.30 pm–7.00 pm today. When she looked out, she saw a mob running directly towards the hostel.

She said that people in the mob were carrying rods and lathis and all had their faces covered. The scholar could not identify who they were and said that the mob was not of people from #JNU.

#JNUViolence

According to the scholar, the mob first entered the common area of the hostel, located on the ground floor. They started breaking the furniture and glass there. She and other girls then saw the mob move the boys wing of the hostel and enter inside.

#JNUViolence

When the mob entered the boys wing, she and about 20–30 girls got scared and huddled in two rooms on the first and second floor of their hostel. They could hear things being broken and people screaming. The scholar said the screams sounded like people were being beaten up.

This carried on for at least 45 minutes till the girls saw the mob move to another hostel. The girls called the police too. Either the police personnel did not pick up the calls, and the ones who did said that they were coming.

#JNUViolence

But till at least 9 pm, not a single police personnel had reached the hostel. Police was deployed on JNU's main gate since afternoon preventing outsiders from coming in, the scholar said. The girls tried to send word to the police at the main gate, but the police did not respond.

The scholar said that the warden was asked to call the police, but the warden did nothing. She added that the mob came looking for specific people. They were not sure who, but specific students's rooms were targeted. She said that one boy's room was completely destroyed.

She said that phone networks have been bad and that WiFi has been shut on campus, so students have been using mobile data. Since the police and warden weren't helping, they began calling friends to help get them out or get media presence.

#JNUViolence

The scholar said the students inside are feeling “absolutely helpless.” She said it is still not safe to move out and the mob targeted another hostel nearby at around 8.30 pm.

#JNUViolence

Correction: The scholar had said that the mob attacked another hostel half an hour after attacking Sabarmati. The Caravan regrets the error.