Detectives looking into “eat, pray, love” aspects

AHMEDABAD: Following the attack on foreign students at the dormitory complex of Gujarat University, detectives are attempting to piece together the intricate network of circumstances that could have led to the violent episode. The purported “love affair” between a foreign student and a local lady, giving namaz outside the hostel rooms, and intolerance for their eating habits have all been reported as potential causes for the assault to investigators.

According to an investigation, a local group became more vigilant after reports that a foreign student and a local lady were romantically involved.
“Our investigation has shown that some members of the group momentarily remained in Block B, which is across Block A from where the international students were living, to see whether a local lady was having a meeting with a foreign student. A senior police official said, “They saw several international Muslim students routinely performing namaz in public throughout their four-day visit.
The eating habits of overseas students, namely their ingestion of non-vegetarian cuisine, also gave rise to resentment. According to another officer, “some students complained that the leftover non-vegetarian food was being discarded improperly.”
In their pursuit of justice, police are investigating every possibility to identify the culprits and stop future conflicts of this kind. Senior police officials said that during the accused’s questioning, they learned that one of the individuals responsible for the assault had called the police control centre to report the foreign students, erroneously believing that they were invading the hostel area.
A fight over namaz being given on the property on March 16 resulted in a violent crowd destroying Block A of the boys’ dormitory at Gujarat University. Three students from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Sri Lanka were hurt in the incident and required hospitalisation at SVP Hospital. Five males have been taken into custody by police so far on IPC allegations of rioting and inflicting great harm, among other offences.