A gun-toting Vice-Chancellor (VC), a deserted campus ... that's Aligarh Muslim University. The university was closed on December 8 following a series of violent incidents, and normalcy is a long way away. While Vice-Chancellor Mahmood-ur-Rahman gets ready to demit office on completion of his term in April, the students hope that the new vice-chancellor will neither be "too lenient" like the last incumbent Prof. Farooqi nor be "dictatorial" like Rehman. Once an IAS officer in Kashmir, Rehman moves around with Z-security and possesses a licensed gun. His bungalow on the campus resembles a fortress.

Rehman ... explained that he kept the gun to protect himself from criminal and hostile forces on the campus. It was the mid-term exam that started it all ... Led by a rusticated student, Jamal Ahmed, a group of 30, allegedly armed, stormed into the examination halls, tore the answer sheets and beat up students who refused to vacate ..

.. Rehman appeared on the scene during the incident, beat up the students who had created trouble and even brandished his gun. He had reportedly taken out his revolver in another incident in 1995. "The law gives me the right to self-defence," thundered Nehman. "If they (the trouble-makers of November 28) were my students, I would not have feared. But they are outlaws, experts in bomb making, members of terrorist groups, the worst criminals of society."

On December 1, a group of (masked) men stabbed deputy proctor Qayyum Hussain in his house on the campus. Hussain, who was injured on his shoulders and his back, was also beaten up ... The police arrested six persons, who claimed to be students of the university ..

Following the arrests, angry students obstructed traffic and forced markets and shops to close. Police and paramilitary forces were deployed in the university to prevent further violence. It was then that the VC decided to close the university ... What caused the ripple? Surely it is not the university's Muslim base, as some insiders believe. For, even when Aligarh had communal riots, the campus was peaceful. It is also not student politics, as the university does not have a party system ... Many students said that Rehman's highhandedness and the control that Jafri, PVC had over him were at the root of the trouble .. (Source: The Week, 9 January, 2000)