Protests in Jamia Millia days after last week’s violence over citizenship act

Protests against the citizenship act had turned into violent clashes last Sunday after four public buses were set on fire in south Delhi.

A protest broke outside Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University against the Citizenship Amendment Act on Saturday, reports said, almost a week after the violence inside the campus.

People took out to streets in large numbers to protest against the new citizenship law, which was recently passed in both houses of the parliament, at Jamia Millia Islamia University, in New Delhi, India, on Friday, December 20, 2019. (Burhaan Kinu/ Hindustan Times photo)

Protests against the citizenship act had turned into violent clashes last Sunday after four public buses were set on fire in south Delhi.

Dozens were injured in the clashes near Jamia Millia Islamia, following which the police entered the campus and lathi-charged several students, leading to allegations of brutality.

Police have denied the charges and said they fired tear gas shells and lathi-charged the protesters to disperse them after people agitating against the citizenship act set fire to at least four buses and several two-wheelers in New Friends Colony.

The university said its students were not behind the violence, and that people from outside the campus were involved in the clashes with the police.

More than a dozen people have been killed in violent clashes in several parts of the country over the new law, which gives citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains who entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.