Soccer violence: Nine more African students arrested

Nine more African students have been arrested in connection with the killing of a Mizo youth in a case of soccer-related violence at Lovely Professional University (LPU) here, police said Friday.

Of the nine, eight are from Sudan and one is from Tanzania and they have been sent to judicial custody, police said. Three others had been arrested earlier and charged with the murder of fellow student Johnny F. Lalhmangaih Wednesday and they are in police remand.

"We have arrested nine more African students. Though they were not directly involved in killing the Mizo student, they had provoked the other three African students to commit the crime and make the situation deteriorate further," Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandeep Sharma told IANS.

"They are pursuing various courses at LPU. They have been booked under Sections 107 and 151 of the Indian Penal Code and sent to 14-day judicial remand by the court."

The first section relates to abetment in crime and the second to knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse.

Police are yet to recover the spiked shoes that the accused were allegedly wearing when they kicked the victim. "Our interrogation is on. We are hopeful of recovering those spiked shoes today," said Sharma.

Three African students - Ahmed Al-Nagni and Sayed Feisal from Tanzania, and Hatin Indriss from Sudan - were arrested Wednesday night for thrashing Johnny to death during a soccer match. Following this, they were also suspended by the LPU authorities.

Johnny, who was pursuing civil engineering from LPU, had scored a goal for his team during a friendly football match between students from Africa and Mizoram in the campus, following which the African students got into a brawl and started bashing him.

According to the post-mortem report, Johnny died of internal injuries. His father works as a sub-divisional officer in the public welfare department in Mizoram.

Following the incident, scores of Indian students went on the rampage Wednesday and damaged the hostel furniture and rooms. Heavy police force was called in to control the situation.

In a bid to avoid any further untoward incidents, LPU authorities have closed the varsity for three days till Saturday. The varsity authorities have also shifted all African students, numbering over 45, from their hostels to an undisclosed location.

"We have deployed sufficient police force inside and outside the campus. There is no threat from anybody and force has been deployed as a precautionary measure," stated Sharma.

Currently, over 250 foreign students from 16 countries are studying at the university. Of them, around 50 are from African countries.

Punjab's first private university, LPU is located on the Phagwara-Jalandhar National Highway, 140 km from Chandigarh, and has over 24,000 students on its rolls.