New Delhi: Braving the freezing cold on Monday morning, hundreds of students poured into the streets outside the Jamia Millia University here to protest the police action against their colleagues a day earlier.
The protesters included women students from several states. Local residents and some guardians also came out in the support of protesting students.
A group of students stood shirtless in the bone-chilling cold outside the university gates in the morning as gusts of icy, cold wind felt like blows on their bare bodies. Others formed a human chain in huge numbers to protest against the “police brutality”.
Slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad” rent the air as protesting students took out a march, demanding a CBI inquiry into the “police brutality”.
Carrying a tricolour, students clapped and raised slogans against the central government and the Delhi Police. “This government is anti-minority, anti-students, anti-poor. We won’t tolerate this. Won’t keep mum,” they said in unison.
A few also live-streamed the protest on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
A group of students claimed that the police on Sunday damaged two mosques on the university campus, beat up the Imam and also a blind student, Arsalan (27), who was in the library.
Anas Siddiqui, a student, added that the police called them “terrorists” and dared them to come out of the campus and face them.
“Our colleagues have been beaten up badly. The policemen entered bathrooms, libraries and beat up girls. Our protest is against the goons called Delhi Police,” a research scholar, who did not want to be identified, said on Monday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and university Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar did not even bother to visit the injured students, the protesters alleged.
Earlier, when a few women escorted an injured student to narrate their ordeal to the media, some people were seen asking them not to give any statements.
“We were inside the university when the police barged in. Around 20 policemen came from gate no 7 and 50 others came from the rear gate. We told them we were not involved in the violence. They didn’t listen. They didn’t even spare women,” Khanzala, who suffered injuries to the legs and abdomen, said.
A women broke down as Khanzala showed his injuries to the media.
Abdur Rehman, a student of the physiotherapy department, claimed that hospitals in the locality, barring Holy Family, denied treatment to the injured students.
Rakshanda, another student, alleged that the police failed to control the violence on Sunday and targeted them when they could do nothing about the actual culprits.
The protesters alleged that two specially-abled students were also attacked during the police action, as they shared videos among themselves.
A few students and locals were seen clearing the roads to allow smooth movement of vehicles.
Also read: Police action caused psychological damage to students: Jamia V-C Najma Akhtar