Indian student arrested, banned from US university over pro-Palestine protest
NEW DELHI, APR 26: Indian-origin student Achinthya Sivalingam has been arrested and banned from Princeton University in the US, pending a disciplinary process, for participating in an unauthorised student-led pro-Palestine encampment protest within the campus premises. The development comes amid continued protests at major universities across the US against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Sivalingam, who was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and raised in Columbus, Ohio, was arrested on Thursday along with another fellow student, Hassan Sayed, the Princeton Alumni Weekly reported, citing a document by the protest organisers that identified the two.
On Thursday morning, student protesters had set up tents in the University’s McCosh Courtyard despite warnings from authorities, the Princeton Alumni Weekly reported.
Within minutes, the two students were arrested, which led to the protesters packing up their tents while continuing to stage a sit-in demonstration.
The sit-in protest, which initially saw a crowd of about 110 people, increased to some 300 by Thursday afternoon.
Confirming Thursday’s development, Princeton University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill said the two graduate students were arrested “after repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease activity and leave the area”.
They “have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process”, she said, adding that the remaining tents in the encampment area were “voluntarily taken down by protesters”.
“No force was used by Public Safety officers when conducting the arrests, which occurred without resistance,” the Princeton Alumni Weekly quoted the spokesperson as saying.
At the protest site, Max Weiss, an associate professor of history at Princeton University, announced, “Long live the solidarity, brilliance, and fearlessness of these brave Princeton students who put their bodies, privilege, and safety on the line when Palestinians are being subjected to unimaginable violence.”
Thursday’s protest was part of a series of demonstrations planned at Princeton University organised by campus groups, including the Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Princeton Palestine Liberation Coalition, and Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD).
In an email sent to students this week regarding the pro-Palestine protests on campus, Rochelle Calhoun, Vice President for Campus Life at Princeton University, said demonstrations that involve “occupying or blocking access to buildings [or] establishing outdoor encampments and sleeping in any campus outdoor space” were prohibited.
“Any individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus. For students, such exclusion from campus would jeopardise their ability to complete the semester,” she said in her email.
“In addition, members of our community would face a disciplinary process (for students this could lead to suspension, delay of a diploma, or expulsion).”
Protests have intensified at major universities across the US, including Ivy League schools Harvard and Yale, after more than 100 people were arrested at New York’s Columbia University last week.
According to a tally by the Reuters news agency, nearly 550 arrests have been made in the past one week.
On Thursday alone, at least 61 protesters were arrested — 28 at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and 33 at Indiana University.
Meanwhile, protesting students at Columbia University, the epicentre of the pro-Palestinian protests, have refused to stop their stir until the prestigious institution agrees to cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and disinvest its funds from entities linked to the Jewish nation.
-PTI
