Indian-origin student Achinthya Sivalingam was arrested on Thursday and also banned from Princeton University in the US after participating in an unauthorised student-led pro-Palestine encampment protest within the campus premises. The incident occured amidst ongoing protests at major universities across the US against the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Sivalinga, hailing from Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, and raised in Columbus, Ohio, was apprehended yesterday along with another student, Hasan Sayed, according to a report by the Princeton Alumni Weekly citing information from the protest organisers.
As per the report, the protest began on Thursday morning when students erected tents in the university’s McCosh Courtyard, going against the warnings from the authorities of the University. Within a short span, both students (Sivalingam and Sayed) were detained. The protestor dismantled the tents but continued a sit-in demonstration even after the arrests, the report stated further.
The sit-in, initially attended by a hundred persons, swelled to around 300 persons participating in the demonstration by Thursday afternoon, the Princeton Alumni Weekly report said.
Confirming the events, Princeton University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill stated that the two graduate students were arrested “after repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease activity and vacate the area”.
She added that they “have been immediately barred from the campus, pending a disciplinary process.” She also confirmed the voluntary removal of tents by the protestors.
Morrill further said, as reported by the Princeton Alumni Weekly, that “no force was used by Public safety officers during the arrests, which were conducted without resistance”.
At the protest venue, Max Weiss, an Associate Professor of History at Princeton University, commended the students, saying, “Long live 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”.
The Thursday protest formed part of a series of demonstrations organised by campus groups at Princeton University, including the Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Princeton Palestine Liberation Coalition, and Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD).
In an email addressing pro-Palestine protests on campus, Rochelle Calhoun, Vice-President for Campus Life at Princeton University, said that actions involving “occupying or blocking access to buildings, establishing outdoor encampments and sleeping in any campus outdoor space” were prohibited.
Protests have escalated at major universities across the US, including IvyLeague institutions like Harvard and Yale, following the arrest of over 100 people are Columbia University in New York last week.
According to Reuters, nearly 500 arrests have been made in the past week alone, with at least 61 protestors detained on Thursday–28 at Emory Univerity in Atlant, Georgia and 33 at Indiana University.