On 23 April 2016, clashes between two regional student groups resulted in on-campus violence at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
After a former student's death in the conflict, the state government was prompted to elevate the security and deploy Rapid Action Force.
The Deputy inspector general of police (DIG) of the Aligarh Range, Govind Agarwal stated that incident started when a resident of Mumtaz hostel was assaulted and his room was set on fire.
Police stated that the victim, Mehtaab was shot dead later that night near the proctor's office where the warring factions exchanged fire.
Rapid Action Force was later deployed at all sensitive spots to ensure safety during the entrance test for the engineering college which was scheduled to happen the next day with more than 13,000 candidates expected to attend the examination at the Aligarh centre.