India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 16— Hundreds of people, including students from different universities, demonstrated at the Delhi Police headquarters for hours late Sunday night against the police assault on students of Jamia Millia Islamia who were protesting against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
As the visuals of the excessive use of force by police emerged on social media, students union of JNU and human rights activists gave a call to common people of Delhi to gather at the Delhi Police headquarters to demand withdrawal of the police force from the Jamia campus and release of the detained students. Scores gathered at the venue around 9:30 PM and within hour, the crowed swelled and several hundred people, including students from JNU and Delhi University were seen protesting there even after midnight.
“Emergency Protest Demo for JMI. All students & citizens of Delhi are appealed to assemble at Delhi Police Headquarters, ITO at 9PM tonight to ensure that the undeclared emergency in JMI is lifted. JNU students are requested to immediately assemble at Sabarmati Dhaba at 8.30 pm,” JNUSU tweeted from its handle around 8 PM.
The protesters outside the Delhi Police headquarters were raising slogans against the police action. They were demanding withdrawal of the police from the campus and release of the detained students.
What Had Happened At Jamia Sunday Afternoon?
Following the burning of some state-run buses near the Jamia university, police and CRPF personnel had barged into the hostels of Jamia and brutally assaulted students there. The security personnel even fired teargas shells into the library where students were studying and ransacked the furniture. Scores of the students were injured and many were detained by the police and taken to nearby police stations.
Several vehicles were also set afire, including three buses, near Mata Mandir in upmarket New Friends Colony. There are different versions. While police claim it was the handiwork of protesters, people participating in protests said they were not involved in it. Some alleged that it were the policemen who poured inflammable liquid on the buses and then set them afire to defame the protesters.
Human Rights Lawyers Reach Police Station Seeking Release of Students:
As the news spread that dozens of Jamia students have been detained and taken to Kalkaji Police station. Eminent human rights activist Harsh Mander and Advocate Kabir Ali Zia Choudhari reached the police station but for hours police did not allow them in and 28 students were presented before them. Some of them narrated the ordeal. They alleged that police beat them even in the vans on way to the police station.
