New Delhi, December 16, 2019 (PPI-OT): Students in multiple cities across India have come out in support of their counterparts at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University after Indian police used brute force during Sunday evening’s protests against the controversial citizenship law.
The police used excessive force during student protests that turned violent at the two universities. The Supreme Court of India, toeing the government line, today, said that the rioting must stop and there should be peace, responding to request to take note of police action on students.
The police barged into the Jamia campus, rounded up students and detained over 100. The police personnel beat and abused students. A massive show of strength by students outside the Delhi Police Headquarters forced the police to release the students all through the night.
Protests by students and others have erupted across the country over the new citizenship law that particularly targets Muslims of India. Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims and is against secular principles of the constitution.
Students threw stones at the police who kept them shut within the gates as a massive protest erupted at a university in Lucknow. Hundreds of students of the Nadwatul Ulama Institute pushed against the main gates as the cops kept the gates firmly shut. The institute has advanced its winter vacation by a week and will reopen on January 5.
Police crackdown on the students has triggered protests at several colleges, including the IITs in Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur. Students of Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) boycotted classes today in solidarity with the Jamia and AMU students and gathered on the campus for a peaceful protest. Students of Mumbai University too planned protests.
In other parts of the country, students of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh University have planned protests against the amended Citizenship Act.
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