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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at the centenary celebrations of the Aligarh Muslim University on December 22, The Times of India reported on Wednesday. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal will also participate in the event, which will be held online.

Modi is the first prime minister to attend an event at the university, one of the oldest in the country, since 1964, when Lal Bahadur Shastri delivered the keynote speech at the convocation ceremony.

“A centenary is a landmark in the history of any university, the entire AMU community and I are grateful to the prime minister for accepting our invitation,” Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor told The Times of India. “The prime minister’s presence at this historic event will be immensely helpful to the growth and development of the university and placement of our students.”

At the ceremony, Modi is expected to inaugurate the newly constructed campus gate of the university, and release a postal stamp and a commemorative coffee table book. The vice chancellor, however, did not confirm this.

An unidentified official of the Aligarh Muslim University told the newspaper that Modi’s presence is expected to “send a strong message” to the Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries who “keep attacking the institution”.

Meanwhile, Mansoor appealed to the university students and staff to keep the centenary programme “above politics” just as they keep Republic Day, Independence Day, Milad un Nabi, Gandhi Jayanti “above differences”, reported PTI.

Last year, Aligarh Muslim University had become the centre of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act after it was passed by the Parliament. Hundreds of students protesting against the law bore the brunt of police brutality when protests had turned violent on December 15, 2019.

fact-finding report on the violence had found that law-enforcement officials fired stun grenades, “usually used in war-like situations or terror operations”, at students and raised “chilling slogans like Jai Shri Ram while attacking the students and setting ablaze their scooters and vehicles...”. The report had said that the university administration not only failed in their duty to protect the campus and its residents against “brutality by the Uttar Pradesh Police, but also that they in fact invited the police forces and their weapons into the campus”.

Courtesy: scroll.in

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London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.

Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.

Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".

"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.

"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.

A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.

"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.

The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.

"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.

“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.

It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.

The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.

“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.

A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.

Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.

The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.

His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.

“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.

Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.

“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.