‘Don’t complain, kill them’, India university official urges students who have issues with classmates
- ‘If you ever get into a fight, beat them, if possible murder them, we’ll take care of it later,’ Raja Ram Yadav told students at Purvanchal University
- Policeman was stoned to death in the same city the following day, but there was no indication it was connected to Yadav’s remarks
A top official at a state-run Indian university urged his students to “murder” fellow students if confronted instead of complaining to him, amid a wave of violence being reported from across the state where the school is based.
“If you’re a student of this university, never come crying to me,” said Raja Ram Yadav, vice-chancellor of Purvanchal University, in a speech. “If you ever get into a fight, beat them, if possible murder them, we’ll take care of it later.”
Yadav was speaking on Friday at a college event in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.
In the same city a police officer was stoned to death during violent protests on Saturday, though there is no indication it was linked to Yadav’s remarks.
Uttar Pradesh is notorious for communal tensions and crime and has been plagued by incidents of mob violence in recent weeks.
A senior police officer and another man were killed in another incident earlier this month after locals protested because they said they had seen some people slaughtering a cow, an animal sacred in Hindu culture. That was in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district.
