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Jamia students clash with police over Citizenship Amendment Act, 50 injured
New Delhi
New Delhi
Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent on Friday after 2,000 former and current students of Jamia Millia Islamia clashed with the police around the university campus on Friday.
Reports said at least 50 people — including students, police personnel, and media persons — were injured in the clash, which also led to blocking of traffic in the neighbourhood for more than five hours.
Joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said that 42 students were detained from the protest site, but were later released in the evening. “A school bus and two private cars were damaged due to stone pelting during the protest,” he said.
The protesters alleged that the security personnel first resorted to a lathicharge, followed by lobbing tear gas shells at them. The police, however, refuted the allegations by saying that they used only “limited force” when the protesters started pelting stones at them and engaged in a
scuffle with policemen, besides breaking iron barricades — while trying to march towards the Parliament.
A case of rioting and arson was being registered in connection with the protests at the time of filing of this report.
The university administration said scores of students were injured and at least a dozen had sustained severe injuries and were taken to nearby hospitals. “At least 12-13 students were seriously injured. The students were all emotional and had the right to protest democratically. We request the government to notice that the students protesting here are all Indians. I believe that if their march wasn’t stopped, the protest would have remained peaceful,” chief proctor Waseem Khan said.
The police, however, said they had not received any medical reports of any students being injured in the clash. Of the 12 injured police personnel, two were admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU), they said.
Students were protesting against the CAA and the decision to conduct National Register of Citizens exercise across India which they said “betrayed the secular nature of India’s Constitution.” Friday’s protest call was preceded by a agitation by Jamia Teachers’ Association inside the university on the same issue. The students have also given the call for a lockdown on Saturday.
Several students had come for the protest after giving their exams. Fateh Veer Singh, a postgraduate student, was one of them. “When the government says that persecuted minorities will be given a place here, how can we ignore Rohingyas and Ahmaddiyas. The bill is communal and unconstitutional. I came here because I have friends from the northeast and we are already seeing the situation there,” he said.
Clashes erupted after students removed some police barricades to march towards the Parliament. The police responded by charging the students with canes. Students responded by throwing shoes, stones, and pieces of bricks at the police force. A senior university official said involvement of locals in the protest was a major reason as to why the events took a violent turn on Friday.
The clashes continued for about two hours with the police entering the campus at one point to lathicharge students inside the university who were throwing stones at them. Tear gas shells were continuously being lobbed inside the university as well.
“We could smell the smoke as it spread inside the campus. Those too close to the gate got tear gas in their eyes and it was really bad. The road was blocked so we could not even leave,” said Amina Razzack, a postgraduate student. Her classmate, Sadaf, said one of tear gas canisters went off in front of her. “A student tried to move the canister using his hands and it exploded. There was so much blood. I blacked out and my friends brought me back to the campus after that,” she said.
Friday was not the first time Jamia students had protested against CAA-NRC. On Thursday night, students and women hostellers had blocked the road outside the university for more than two hours over the issue . “The Northeast Students’ Association were protesting on Thursday night because CAA’s roots are in the Northeast.We are protesting against allowing illegal immigrants and not because of the Act’s religious stance. However, we lend support to today’s movement as well,” said Mehnaz, an undergraduate student.
Delhi police spokesperson Anil Mittal said since Jantar Mantar was choked with people beyond the permissible limit of 1,000, students were asked to protest at the university and not proceed towards New Delhi area.“However, they got agitated and aggressively confronted the police personnel. They broke barricades and indulged in stone pelting, which also caused damage to parked vehicles. Police had to lob tear gas shells with use of limited force to disperse the protesters,” he said.
Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan and Delhi Congress leaders, including state president Subhash Chopra, later visited the protest site to meet students and demanded release of those detained.
