An altercation between domestic and international students over substitution of players during a friendly football match at the G D Goenka University here over the weekend escalated into a full-blown conflict embroiling the varsity administration, the police and even embassy officials.
While officials of the Nigerian embassy had to be called in to calm the tempers, the university administration has suspended 22 students — both domestic and international. Both groups of students have filed FIRs accusing the rival group of attacking and causing injuries.
It began with the reluctance of the university football team captain Khaleel Yahaya to let in any of the domestic students as substitutes during the match inside the university premises on October 14. One eye-witness said the team captain ignored the repeated requests by the sports officer to give domestic students a chance. “When the captain did not allow the domestic players in with just 20-30 minutes to go for the second-half to end and the team leading 3-0, the domestic students walked on to the ground running out of the patience and stopped the match mid-way. A verbal fight broke out between them and the captain, and soon it escalated into a scuffle between the domestic and international students,” said the eye-witness.
Besides the students from Nigeria, the team also had students from Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Congo.
One of the suspended international students said on condition of anonymity that none of the domestic students were wearing their team jersey and were also not regular to the practice sessions prompting the captain to not let them play. He also blamed the sports officer of instigating the domestic students.
Two FIRs were registered in this connection at City Sohna on October 15 night within a span of nine minutes on similar charges of causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
While Sultan Khan, a resident of Kapashera, named three Nigerian students in the FIR accusing them of attacking him and his friends with rods, a counter FIR by Rabiu Mahmood, a few minutes later, accused “Indian local people” of attacking international students inside the hostel causing injuries.
Dhirendra Singh Parihar, Registrar, G D Goenka University, told Today News 24 that the university administration called in the Nigerian embassy officials after the second round of brawl on October 15 to speak to the students. Later, around 100 Nigerian students left the campus to stay at the Embassy building on Saturday night to avoid further escalation, but returned the next morning.
“The disciplinary committee has been holding meetings with the suspended students and their parents as part of the detailed probe, and those found guilty could be expelled,” said Dr. Parihar.
However, it is not the first such incident between the international and domestic students. Earlier this year, the domestic students had objected to some international students offering namaz in the playground during Ramzan and the matter snowballed after some Hindu outfits joined in the chorus.
Dr. Dhirendra said the two incidents were not connected. He claimed that the university had over 200 students from outside India, but there had never been any incident of religious or racial hatred.
Nigeria national Sadiq, a B.Sc (Radiology) student, said he never faced any discrimination at the university because of his nationality and religion and he could say the same for the fellow international students enrolled in the course.
Sani Abba, another Nigerian student, denied any link between the namaz row and the clash during the football match or racial hatred behind it. “It is my final year of Civil Engineering here. For past three years in this university, I never faced any harassment from the locals,” said Mr. Sani Abba.