COVID-19: Panic after 16 faculty members at Aligarh Muslim University die

Aligarh: Assistant professor Dr Yusuf Ansari who taught English to undergrads knew early on what he wanted to do with his life. He was working on a book on Indian playwright Girish Karnad. Once he had finished it, Ansari planned to go to England to study postcolonial literature and then return to his home country as school teacher. On May 5, the popular teacher died of Covid-19. He was 35.

Ansari’s colleague professor Dr Furqan Sambhali, 43, who authored several books had succumbed to the virus a few days earlier as had another colleague, Dr Aziz Faisal who had just turned 40.

On Saturday, the coronavirus snatched away the life of professor Shakeel Samdani who taught law and was a member of the executive committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

In a country ravaged by the pandemic, few places have suffered as much as the century old-Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in northern India, ranked #801-1000 in QS Global World Rankings 2021.

Over a dozen of its faculty members have died from Covid-19 in recent days.

University officials said many of these teachers were engaged in important work which could have impacted lives and also helped in nation building.

A pall of gloom now hangs over the hallowed portals of the institution whose alumni are spread all over the world, mostly the Middle East.

“I have lost so many colleagues, it will take years, perhaps decades, to overcome my grief. Even if everything gets back to normal, things will never be the same for me,” said Dr Shah Alam, assistant professor at Centre for Women studies. Dr Sambhali, who taught Urdu, was also his relative.

“AMU’s Facebook page is beginning to look an epitaph. It’s not just the university but the entire Alig fraternity is mourning these untimely deaths,” said another professor.

“Professor Sajid Ali Khan (Psychology), Mohammad Irfan (Museology), Qazi Mohammad Jamshed.. it’s a long list

Official records at the university’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College show that 15 faculty members have died since the pandemic , however the vice chancellor put the number of fatalities to 16.

“The Alig fraternity is numbed by these figures. The services of all these teachers will be missed,” said vice chancellor professor Tariq Mansoor whose brother Omar Farooq, 75, a former member of university court, also died of Covid.

Alarmed by these deaths, the AMU vice chancellor has urged the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to investigate if a deadly coronavirus variant is circulating around the campus.

In a letter to the ICMR director general, he said 16 serving and several retired teachers besides other employees of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) living on the university campus and adjoining localities have succumbed to the infection in recent days. “This is giving rise to a suspicion that a particular viral variant may be circulating in the Civil Lines area of Aligarh in which AMU and many adjoining localities are situated,” the letter said.

The microbiology laboratory at AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is sending samples collected at its Covid-19 testing laboratory to the Institute of Genomic and Integrated Biology laboratory, New Delhi, for the genome sequencing of variants detected in the town.

Meanwhile the registrar has announced that the university and the institutions under it will remain closed till May 16 following the decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to extend the lockdown to contain the virus spread in the state which recorded 23, 333 new Covid cases and 296 deaths in the past 24 hours. The death toll in Uttar Pradesh has now climbed to 15,464 while the total number of cases have surged past 1.5 million.