Thousands of students and research scholars staged a protest in front of the Centenary Clock Tower in Manasagangothri campus here today demanding the State and Central Governments to initiate measures to stop atrocities against dalits and progressive thinkers.

The protest, jointly called by Mysore University Research Scholars Association (MURSA) and Dalita Vidyarthi Okkuta witnessed students and research scholars boycotting their classes and staging a dharna.

They alleged that organisations such as RSS, ABVP and VHP were forcibly making people to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’. They were also involved in spraying ink on ‘Dundi’ author Yogesh Master and Nagabhushan, who were also threatened to be killed for writing against Hindu religion.

The protestors shouted slogans condemning the recent incidents of a dalit woman being stripped in Gujarat, attack on writer Narendra Nayak, suicide of Muthukrishna at JNU in New Delhi and also threatened to intensify the protest if action was not taken against organisations and individuals involved in atrocities against dalits and progressive thinkers.

Few students at the Round Canteen were locked inside for not participating in the protest.

City Police had provided tight security at the campus to avoid untoward incidents.