Jamia Millia Islamia witnessed a pitched battle between students, including locals, and police on Friday afternoon after they were stopped at the varsity gate from carrying out their march towards Parliament to protest against the Citizenship Act.
In the ensuing clash, several students and cops were hurt. Of 42 students, who were detained with ten locals, were released later.
A senior police official said 12 police personnel were injured in the clash. “Conditions of two of them is said to be critical and they are admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU),” said the official.
The students claimed they were baton-charged by police. The students resorted to stone-pelting.
However, the protestors alleged that police resorted to stone-pelting first and students threw stones in response to the attack. To buttress their claims, students posted on social media videos showing police caning the protestors.
The CAB protest call was given by Jamia Teachers’ Association (JTA) on Friday and everything went on peacefully on the campus until students started marching towards Parliament House with other local groups who were coming from Batla House. Looking at the outpouring of the residents, Jamia Nagar saw a literal lockdown with police putting up barricades in several places, including in front of Jamia Nagar Police Station, forcing residents to walk to their destinations.
A few metres from Jamia main gate, police had cordoned off the road to stop protesters to go ahead towards Julaina. “Students started their march. We had placed barricades which they broke and tried to jump over them. Then they threw stones at us forcing us to use teargas shells. The students have been detained and taken to Badarpur police station,” a senior police official present at the stop said.
A law student at Jamia Onaihza said, “We were marching peacefully and police stopped us from marching. First, they lathicharged us asking us to move backwards. Then they pelted stones in response to which students picked up stones too.”
Another student alleged that police resorted to pelting stones and then used tear gas that resulted in many students being injured. Police, however, denied the allegations.
Additional Public Relation Officer (APRO), Delhi Police, Anil Mittal, said there were scheduled protest at Jantar Mantar today and since the place was already saturated with people beyond the permissible number of 1000, the protesters who were coming from different parts of the city to gather at Jantar Mantar, were advised not to proceed to Jantar Mantar.
“In this process, some protesters who were coming from Central Delhi were stopped at Ranjeet Singh Flyover, and they dispersed peacefully after police persuasion. Likewise, the protesters who were coming from Jamia were also persuaded to protest peacefully there only and requested not to march towards New Delhi area,” said the APRO.
“However, the students coming from Jamia got agitated and aggressively confronted the police personnel. They broke barricades and indulged in stone pelting at police personnel which also caused damage to parked vehicles. Police had to lob tear gas shells with use of limited force to disperse the protesters,” said Mittal.
Local leaders, including Okhla AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, former MLA Asif Md Khan, councillor Shoaib Danish and Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra, turned up at the protest spot.
As a precautionary measure, the police also advised the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to close the entry and exit points at Patel Chowk and Janpath metro stations.
“As advised by Delhi Police, entry and exit at Patel Chowk and Janpath have been closed. Trains will not be halting at these stations,” DMRC said on twitter.
The station was resumed later.
