After meeting the Chief Minister and others at Sachivalaya in this regard, the students, who are allegedly being terrorised by a gang of local goons, left for their hometowns in North Gujarat late in the evening. "We would want to return to Morbi at the earliest, for the semester examinations are round the corner", a North Gujarat Students' Federation leader told The Indian Express.

An altercation relating to the accommodation of students in the laboratory around noon on April 17 snowballed into a major fight on the Lakhadhiraj Engineering College at Morvi.

The rival groups comprised students from Saurashtra on one side and those from North Gujarat, mainly Mehsana, on the other. The groups arearch rivals in an attempt to establish supremacy on campus. Soon, heated discussions gave way to assaults with sticks and pipes.

According to District Superintendent of Police Satish Sharma, eight boys, five of whom were from North Gujarat, sustained minor injuries.

The police registered a cross-case of rioting and followed it up with a bandobast at the college. No arrests have been made yet.

After hearing the students' woes, Narmada Development Minister Jay Narayan Vyas censured Rajkot DSP (Rural) Sharma on telephone for ``being partisan and having failed to provide protection to engineering students". Vyas also called Rajkot collector P V Trivedi and the DIG, Rajkot Range. He directed them to check campus violence and ensure the students' safe return to Morbi.

In a memorandum to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, the students have alleged that a gang of anti-socials has formed a "Patel Social Group" in the Morbi Engineering College to terrorise outstation students.

This `casteist outfit', led by thenephew of a local legislator, also carries out illegal activities on campus, it alleges.

The students say the gang entered the college campus on Saturday and attacked North Gujarat students with sharp weapons, in which several of them were injured. "Instead of arresting the members of this gang, the local police booked some of us and took us into custody for the night", they said.

The students have complained that the gang forced the authorities concerned to stop water supply to the hostel and is also not allowing lunch boxes to be sent in for hostelites. "The police and local politicians are hand in glove with these goons. And, if this nexus is not broken, these undesirable forces will continue to terrorise outstation students", a student leader said.

Although the college authorities were not available for comment, Sharma said the college authorities had shut down the hostels for a month.

Meanwhile, academic work resumed at the college campus today amidst police presence.