The Aligarh Muslim University authorities were considering to close the university for indefinite period after repeated attempts to persuade students to end their stir and appear for examinations failed.
Students’ groups are seeking the withdrawal of “false cases” against those who participated in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on December 15. Heavy security, including Rapid Action Force, have been deployed to tackle any untoward incident on the campus.
AMU Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor issued an appeal to students on Thursday to appear for exams and asked them not to fall prey to rumours.
“I appeal to the students, whose future is foremost on my mind, to not fall prey to rumours, propaganda spread by vested interests and to appear in examinations and attend classes,” Mansoor said.
The vice-chancellor also termed his appeal as “final” and said that if academic activities were not back to normal, keeping the university open would be of no use.
“If the examinations and classes are prevented from being held by some misguided elements, there will be no justification of keeping the university open and allowing 23,000 students to sit idle on the campus. This is my last appeal to all, to maintain peace and tranquillity on the campus and appear in the exams and attend classes from January 30, 2020. Already 18 days have gone by without any academic activity,” Mansoor said.
Meanwhile, AMU Students Union’s former president Abdul Hafiz Gandhi also appealed to the protesting students not to boycott classes and exams.
Speaking to media persons, Gandhi said, “I appeal to AMU students that the struggle against CAA-NPR-NRC seems to be long drawn. People are fighting it on the streets. This struggle will continue till these anti-constitutional steps are withdrawn. But for student of AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia, my humble request is that allow classes and exams in the morning and continue organising protests/meetings democratically in the afternoon or evening. This will save huge academic loss. We, as your elders, vow to continue fighting for a better future.”
The AMU students are protesting against the police crackdown on students on the campus on December 15 last year and demanding resignation of the vice-chancellor and registrar.
On Wednesday, a key meeting of administrative officers was called and the vice-chancellor along with various head of departments and Superintendent of Police Akash Kulhary and District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh decided that a direct dialogue be established between the HoDs and students. In case the efforts failed, the last option would be to announce a sine die closure of AMU. 
Meanwhile, women protesting against the CAA sat on an indefinite dharna at Eidgah in Aligarh with the police booking 250 of them for unlawful assembly on Thursday.
Nine of them were named in the FIR.
The women have been charged under IPC sections pertaining to unlawful assembly (145), rioting (147) and disobedience to order issued by a public servant (188).
The protest began on Wednesday afternoon and by the evening, a large number of people joined it, despite the police trying to deter them from violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code that prohibits public gatherings.