Anand Sharma attacked in JNU, student union blames ABVP

New Delhi: Congress leader Anand Sharma was attacked on Saturday by unknown assailants while participating at a protest meet held at Jawaharlal Nehru University against the police crackdown in the campus on Friday.

Eyewitnesses said Sharma was repeatedly struck on his ear by an assailant which led to profuse bleeding.

The JNU Students Union (JNUSU) soon issued a statement condemning the attack, and alleged that it was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activist who assaulted the former union minister.

The senior Congress leader had gone to the JNU campus to meet the protesting students who have been agitating against the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans during an event on the campus. JNUSU denies allegations that any of its members raised any such slogans.

Prior to the incident, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressed the students criticising the police crackdown.

Apart from Gandhi, party's Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who is himself a former JNUSU leader, Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja, Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist leader Kavita Krishnan and other senior leaders on Saturday visited JNU and joined the protest.

Around 2,000 people including students, teachers and others gathered in front of administration block of the campus protesting against the arrest of JNUSU president.

ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, also staged a counter-protest, shouting slogans including "Rahul Gandhi go back."

Meanwhile JNU student union declared strike in university from Monday.