Indian-origin student Achinthya Sivalingan was one of two students arrested at Princeton University in the US for participating in a pro-Palestine protest inside the campus on Thursday.
Coimbatore-born Sivalingan and Hassan Sayed were detained when the student protesters were setting up tents in the university courtyard early Thursday morning, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
“A document shared by protesters identified the arrested students as Achinthya Sivalingam and Hassan Sayed. Urvi, a first-year Ph.D. student who asked to be identified only by her first name, called the arrest “violent” and said zip ties were put around their wrists,” the college alumni magazine wrote.
Arrested due to trespassing
In a statement, Jennifer Morrill, a spokesperson for the University, stated that pitching tents violated University policy, leading to the arrest of the two students for trespassing “[a]fter repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease the activity and leave the area.”
Additionally, Morrill mentioned that Sivalingan and Sayed “have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process.” She also noted that the remaining tents were “voluntarily taken down by protestors.”
Sivalingam is pursuing a Master’s in Public Affairs (MPA) on International Development at Princeton, while Sayed is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the economics department at the prestigious institution.
Sivalingam and Sayed ‘not evicted’
According to The Daily Princetonian, student organisers have circulated a document on Instagram urging alumni and other university members to call and email the University to halt disciplinary actions, claiming that Sivalingam and Sayed had been removed from their campus housing and given only five minutes to gather their belongings.
However, university spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss stated in a statement that the institution has not ‘evicted’ anyone.
“The University has not ‘evicted’ anyone today. Under University protocol, Public Safety may initially accompany students barred from campus (regardless of reason) to their University housing to collect whatever belongings they require in the short term, until the specific terms of their bar from campus are determined by the designated administrator,” Hotchkiss said.
He further notified, “The students barred from the main campus today are permitted to remain in their University-owned housing, as the designated administrator determined that their bar does not extend to their non-dormitory residences.”
Pro-Palestine protests across top US universities
Pro-Palestine protests have swept through top universities in the US as thousands of students take to their campuses to demonstrate against the Gaza deaths resulting from the Israeli military operation.
These demonstrations mark one of the most recent instances of clashes between law enforcement and students protesting the increasing death toll in Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The protests initially began at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to suppress an occupation.
Student protesters have been urging their universities to divest their investments in Israel and advocate for an immediate ceasefire.
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