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All in 24 hours: What happened at Jamia and the aftermath
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) snowballed on Sunday afternoon as buses were set on fire, the police lathi-charged protestors and allegedly lobbed teargas at the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) library, and detained students. Hundreds later demonstrated in front of the former police headquarters at ITO intersection till early Monday.
Hindustan Times correspondents were at the spot from the beginning of the first protest at Jamia Nagar. Here’s what transpired in the past 24 hours.
The beginning
Jamia Millia students had called for a peaceful march at 11am on Sunday to protest the new act, which grants citizenship to persons of Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain faiths who, facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, entered the country on or before December 31, 2014.
Around 2,000 students walked on the road in front of the university, from gate no. 7 up to Batla House and back, said Nihal Ahmed, an MPhil researcher at the university and one of the student organisers. Upon finishing the loop, the organisers called for the march to be dispersed, and asked JMI students to return to the campus. Around 100 police officers were present at this time.
Between 11am and 2pm, the crowd of protestors swelled as students and local citizens joined. Many Jamia Nagar shopkeepers had kept their establishments shut as a sign of protest. Around this time, a “peaceful” rally helmed by Okhla legislator Amanatullah Khan of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was also under way. The MLA told HT that over several thousand people were protesting peacefully at Shaheen Bagh, a locality near the university.
Around 3pm, the protestors marched towards New Delhi, taking Mathura Road, an arterial stretch that connects central Delhi with south Delhi, Faridabad, and Mathura. Many JMI students had by now returned to the campus.
At 3.15 pm, the protestors reached Sarai Jullena Chowk near the New Friends Colony community centre market. About 200 police personnel were reportedly present to prevent protestors from going further. However, many protesters began walking towards Surya Hotel, where Delhi police managed to restrict them for nearly an hour. Some climbed police barricades and walked towards Mata Mandir Marg.
The flare-up
The police alleged that around 4pm, some protesters set on fire two DTC buses and a motorcycle on Mata Mandir Marg — a claim contested by several eyewitnesses. The police said they received orders to charge at the protesters with batons and fire tear gas shells. The first tear gas shell was fired around 4.40pm. However, protestors who were injured in the clash alleged the police fired the tear gas before the buses was torched.
“Before any bus was set on fire, the police fired tear gas shells. There was chaos afterwards,” said Rezna M, a student. Delhi Police denied the allegations.
Between 4.45-6pm, protestors spilled on to Mathura Road, where another bus and a car were torched. At this point, the police blocked one carriageway of Mathura Road. JMI students issued a press statement almost immediately after news of arson began circulating, saying they condemned the violence and that their protest was peaceful one from the start.
“Violence by certain elements is an attempt to vilify and discredit genuine protestors,” the statement circulated over WhatsApp and other social media platforms, read.
Around 6pm, reports of stone pelting by protesters was reported at New Friends Colony and Mathura Road.
Cops in campus
Around the same time, police teams entered the university campus through gate no. 4 and an adjacent gate. Tear gas shells were allegedly fired into the new library building, causing students in the reading rooms on the ground floor to break the glass on the walls for air. The library, which can seat around 500 students, had an unspecified number of students inside at the time. Some students ran to the first and second floors to escape the police that had entered the building. Delhi police say they had to move into the campus because many unruly protesters had entered there. The police deny they entered the library but admitted one of the tear gas shells may have entered it.
The students alleged the police hit them with batons inside the campus ; even guards — many ex-servicemen—received head wounds and body injuries, which HT has seen. At about 7.15pm, some students were paraded out of the university with their hands in the air, and taken to another spot outside the campus, where they were let off. At least 50 students who were in the old library building — located nearby— were detained and taken to the New Friends Colony and Kalkaji Police stations.
Students said the police entered JK hostel, where lights were switched off. A student who did not wish to be named told HT that on Monday, hostel wardens had allegedly warned them to deny the police’s entry into the girls’ hostel.
At 8pm, the Delhi government announced that schools in parts of southeast Delhi would remain closed on Monday. Many student groups of different political affiliations in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University called for a protest outside the former police headquarters at ITO at 9pm. Delhi Police asked Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to close the gates of 16 metro stations around ITO.
Protests shift to ITO
Between 9pm and midnight, an estimated 3,000 protestors gathered outside the headquarters. Many held banners well as photographs of Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar, protesting the alleged police violence and the CAA. The traffic police blocked Vikas Marg for vehicles, and several policemen and policewomen in riot gear stood on standby. The protestors refused to leave until the JMI students, detained at the NFC and Kalkaji police stations, were let off. They dispersed only at 5am, only after they received confirmed news that the detained students had been released.
Even as the protest at ITO was underway, former Indian Administrative Services officer Harsh Mander and advocate Kabir Ali Zia Choudhuri met detained students at both police stations, and said some were injured and needed medical attention. The 16 students detained at NFC police station were taken to AIMS Trauma Centre for a check-up at about 1.15am, following which they were released. Around 3am, the 30-odd students at the Kalkaji police station were released with many of their parents and guardians waiting for them outside the station gate.
Speaking to reporters at the NFC police station earlier on Sunday night, Khan said, “ I have spoken to the police commissioner, the deputy commissioner, and university officials, including the registrar and proctor, and they assured me the students will not be mistreated, nor will any charges be placed upon them so that their careers are not destroyed.”
“None of the students detained were involved in the protests, they were only studying in the library, the students told me,” Khan said.
Exams scheduled for Monday at JMI were cancelled and the winter break, which was to have started next week, was declared early. Many students staying in Jamia hostels left with their luggage.
Enter Monday
On Monday morning, students of Delhi University’s Faculty of Political Science began a protest against the treatment meted out to JMI students, with some boycotting semester exams in solidarity.
At JMI, the campus was deserted. The police closed the Sarita Vihar-Kalindi Kunj road for traffic as the number of protesters outside the gate swelled. Around noon, minor clashes broke out between protesting students and ABVP members. The ABVP said they went to the north Campus because the protesters were stopping other students from writing exams. Around 2:40 pm, a verbal spat took place between ABVP members and those from other students’ organisations. Police had to intervene to control the situation. After rounds of discussion, the protesters agreed to vacate the site and moved to Jantar Mantar around 3 pm.
The protest site changed again when the Congress said senior leader Priyanka Gandhi would hold a sit-in protest at the India Gate lawns at 4 pm. After Gandhi left India Gate lawns at around 6 pm, another group of protesters, mostly civilians and students, took over and started reading the Preamble of the Constitution.
Explaining why they were reading the Preamble, Shreya Srivastava, a law student currently interning in Delhi, said, “The Preamble is the soul of the country and this is the time to remind the government about it.”
