Beef fest row leads to stabbing of student

HYDERABAD: A 22-year-old postgraduate (PG) student was reportedly stabbed by a few unidentified students on Osmania University campus in connection with beef festival celebration late on Sunday night. The injured was admitted to a nearby hospital and his condition is stable.The victim, Rama Rao, was attacked in the C- hostel on the OU campus where he stays. Police registered five cases, including one attempt to murder case and another case under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against ABVP activists and beef festival organisers.Barring stray incidents of a mini bus being set afire and mild stone pelting, the one-day bandh call given by the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishath (ABVP) went off peacefully in the university on Monday.Regarding the stabbing incident, police suspect the role of outsiders who had entered the campus allegedly with the assistance of OU professors around 12.30 am. They reportedly had a heated argument with a section of students over organising the beef festival before attacking Rama Rao.On being informed, police rushed to the scene and shifted a bleeding Rama Rao to hospital. Police suspect the outsider to be the one accused in the recent communal riots in Madannapet and Saidabad. Preliminary enquiries revealed that a few professors who had organised the beef festival brought some outsiders into the campus to face a section of students opposing the event.Meanwhile, scores of ABVP activists gathered at the Arts College around 10.30 am and went in a rally to the Administrative Building demanding stern action against those involved in the stabbing incident. Mild tension prevailed during the rally as some students hurled stones at the protestors when the rally reached the NSS prompting the ABVP activists to retaliate. The police swung into action and dispersed the gathering.The protestors demanded that vice-chancellor Prof S Satyanarayana should act on the issue within 24 hours. With the V-C giving them an assurance, they dispersed. K Ramachandran, ACP, Kacheguda, said the bandh call went off peacefully.