Foreign students attacked in India over Ramadan prayer at university hostel

Five people have been arrested in connection with the attacks on Muslim students for praying on the university premises in Gujarat state.

At least four foreign students have been injured after a Hindu far-right mob allegedly stormed a university hostel in India’s western Gujarat state and attacked the group of students for offering prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, local media has reported.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday pledged to take “strict actions against the perpetrators”, as the local police in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said an investigation was under way in connection with the attack at the Gujarat University.

The students told local media that a small group had gathered on Saturday night inside the boys’ hostel premises for the Ramadan tarawih prayer as there is no mosque on the university campus based in Ahmedabad. Soon after, a mob armed with sticks and knives stormed the hostel, attacked them and vandalised their rooms, they said.

“A group of 15 students were offering prayers when three people came and started shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ [Hail lord Ram]. They objected to us praying here,” local media quoted a student as saying.