Jamia turns into battlefield after police enters campus forcibly

NEW DELHI: Students of Jamia Millia Islamia, a renowned public university were injured in a police lathicharge during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act which turned violent on Sunday evening.

Delhi Police on Sunday evening entered the Jamia campus forcibly without any permission and “violently attacked thousands of students”.

Students narrate ordeals

According to NDTV, some women students on Monday morning left the hostel as they felt unsafe.

Students narrated their ordeal saying that the policemen barged  into bathrooms, prayer hall, library inside the campus, vandalised the property and assaulted them not to give any statements.

They resorted to tear gas shelling and lathicharge inside the campus after tensions erupted in Sarai Juleina and Mathura Road earlier on Sunday.

Civilians were so terrified that “many left their cars on the way and ran for their life”, a Delhi resident who lives close to Jamia Millia Islamia told IANS.

Police deny reports

Delhi Police has, however, denied reports of entering the university campus. Delhi Commissioner of Police, southeast, Chinmoy Biswal, also said that protesters were merely pushed back and that the police had not resorted to any kind of firing.

He, however, added that when they noticed stones were being pelted at them from within the campus, the police tried to enter and identify the miscreants.

FIR against police: Jamia VC

Jamia Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar on Monday in a press conference said, “Whatever has happened is not acceptable. The university property was damaged, who will pay for this loss. More than that this is taken an emotional toll on the students.”

She further said that FIR will be filed against the entry of police in the campus. “We will file an FIR against the entry of police in our university campus. You can rebuild the property but you cannot compensate for the things the students went through. We demand a high-level inquiry.”

Protest across India over CAA

Several parts of India have been witnessing violent protests ever since the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in the Parliament last week.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hold a hearing on the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, held in Delhi”s Jamia Millia Islamia University and Uttar Pradesh”s Aligarh Muslim University on Tuesday.

The Bill, which has now become an Act after getting the President’s nod, will provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.