Guwahati: Students from the Northeast staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Wednesday, demanding justice for Tripura student Anjel Chakma, who died after being stabbed in Dehradun earlier this month.
Hundreds of students from the Northeast studying at Delhi University took part in the demonstration, which was organised under the banner of the Northeast Students’ Society of Delhi University (NESSDU).
The protesters called for a thorough and impartial investigation into Chakma’s killing.
Anjel Chakma (24), a resident of Tripura’s Unakoti district, was allegedly attacked by a group of six people in Dehradun on December 9 after he objected to racial slurs directed at him and his younger brother. He succumbed to his injuries on December 26 while undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Dehradun police have arrested five of the six accused in the case, while one suspect, Yagyaraj Awasthi, a resident of Nepal’s Kanchanpur district, remains absconding.
Northeast Students’ Society of Delhi University (NESSDU) president Pointing Thokchom said the protesters were demanding that the case be handed over to the CBI and that the victim’s family be adequately compensated. He also called for a law to protect students from the Northeast against racial abuse and attacks.
Bipul Chakma, vice-president of the All India Chakma Students’ Union, alleged that delays by the Uttarakhand administration in conducting the investigation forced students to assemble at Jantar Mantar to demand justice.
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“I went to Dehradun on December 11 after Anjel Chakma’s father called me because no one was helping,” he said, adding that he had personally faced racial abuse while studying at Delhi University. “We want this vicious cycle of racial abuse and attacks against students from the Northeast to end.”
