The Congress on Monday appointed a four-member fact-finding committee to carry out a detailed inquiry into the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
"The Congress president has appointed a fact-finding committee on the JNU incident. They have been asked to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident of violence in JNU campus and (will) submit the report to the party chief within a week," a statement from AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.
The members of the fact-finding committee are Sushmita Dev, the Mahila Congress chief, Hibi Eden, an MP and former NSUI president, Syed Naseer Hussain, an MP and former president of JNU NSUI (National Students' Union of India) and Amrita Dhawan, a former NSUI president and ex-Delhi University Students' Union president.
On Sunday, around 60 people in masks entered the JNU campus brandishing hockey sticks and iron rods. They also broke into hostels, including those occupied by women. Stones were hurled at students and professors. At least 28 people, including JNU Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh and professor Sucharita Sen, were injured during the attack, which lasted for nearly two hours. The injured students and professors were admitted to AIIMS hospital.
According to a professor, Atul Sood, there had been incidents of violence in the last few days and the teachers on the campus had called for a peace march. However, when students and teachers gathered for the peace march, a mob of masked people barged into the campus and started attacking them.
The attack on the JNU students and faculty triggered fresh rounds of protest across India.
JNU Students Union (JNUSU) accused the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) of orchestrating the attack on students. On Monday, around 15-20 people gathered outside the main gate of JNU, raising slogans against the Left-affiliated outfits and chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. The students raised slogans against the Left as JNUSU was addressing a press conference, narrating the attack on a group of students inside the campus on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the wardens of the Sabarmati hostel at JNU resigned, stating that they were quitting on "moral grounds" as they were unable to provide security to the hostel residents.