Ivica Dacic (BetaPhoto/Serbian Ministry of Interior)
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on July 30 that, following the July 29 incident at the University of Novi Pazar, ten people were taken into custody while others have been identified via video surveillance and will be processed accordingly.
“The police did not enter the University. [Officers] touched no one but were attacked,” Dacic told Pink TV and added that Serbs and Bosniaks alike have complained of being threatened over condemning the event.
The majority of those detained are aged 30 or above, so only two could be considered students, the minister said, insisting that arrests are being made regardless of nationality.
Dacic stressed that the University has the right to choose its security provider and that these companies do not employ “street thugs” but are rather “legitimate organizations that operate in keeping with the law.”
“I urge [people] to calm down. The state has mechanisms to maintain public peace and order but it would be better if they are not employed,” Dacic said.
In the early hours of July 29, a group of about twenty masked and hooded individuals stormed the building of the State University of Novi Pazar yelling: “Fire, everyone out!”
According to the university students participating in the months-long blockade of their school, the assailants forcibly removed anyone who refused to leave the University premises.
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