JNU protests: Students allege assault by police

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students who on Monday started their protest march towards the Parliament, were allegedly thrashed by police personnel and taken to unknown locations after detention.

Brutally beaten

Visually-impaired Shashi Bhushan Samad, a JNUSU councilor and a revolutionary singer was beaten up brutally by the polic. He is currently undergoing treatment at AIIMS’s trauma center, New Delhi.

Not just Samad but other physically-disabled students were also beaten up

The students took to Twitter to share pictures of the alleged asault by the police and the hashtag ‘EmergencyinJNU’ trended on the microblogging site.

https://twitter.com/_ambedkarite/status/1196501749676167168

Police deny

The Delhi Police denied all the accusations, however, video footage and pictures corroborates that fact that students were chased, dragged and even beaten brutally.

Complete fee rollback

In a recent development, the JNU students’ march to Parliament was stopped by the police near Safdarjung Tomb. They are demanding complete fee rollback along with other demands.

A student protestor here alleged that by constituting a high-power committee to recommend ways to restore normal functioning in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is trying to create a certain sense of fear among the students.

“Our demands are very clear. Many student protestors have been thrashed brutally and they have been taken to unknown locations. Our demand is to release our detained friends. JNUSU has not received any notification regarding the high-power committee,” said the student protestor.

“The teacher’s association has also not received any notification in this regard. They haven’t made it clear that what steps they will be taking. We want to convey a message to MHRD that no such committee is valid for us until the hostel manual gets cancelled,” he added.

Students raised slogans and banners against the government. A large number of protestors chanted slogans like, “Halla Bol” and “Dekhna hai zor kitna bazue katil mein hai”.

“The students are being treated very ruthlessly by the police. Later, we changed our way and now we are coming from Munirka Metro Station route. We are challenging the police who are behaving badly with the students protesting against the fee hike. We will try to reach the Parliament today no matter what,” said a student protestor.

One of the protestors claimed that many students have been injured and they have been taken to the hospital.

“We were heading very peacefully still police resorted to lathi-charge. We were carrying the tricolour flag with us still the police thrashed us. This protest will continue,” said a female protestor.