Jamia Reverberates in Aligarh With Force, Students Rise in Support Across Campuses

NEW DELHI/ALIGARH: The brutal police action on Jamia Millia students inside the campus triggered off demonstrations in several Universities through the night, but Aligarh Muslim University students faced campus action from the Uttar Pradesh police with internet services cut off even as television cameras recorded images of the police driving in full force with fire tenders late at night.



The protests in support of the Jamia students in AMU resulted in stone throwing, with the initial social media posts capturing the police smashing two wheelers outside the campus. And later storming the gates of the University. Reports that the police had entered the campus were then met with silence except for odd social media posts from students suggesting brutal action. The authorities moved to shut down the University but the police insisted that the students be made to vacate the hostels immediately. The delay, sources said, resulted in action against the students with at least one widely circulated video on the social media showing the hostel rooms on fire. Tweets claimed that this had been done by the cops, to flush out the students who were then beaten and arrested as they came out.

Television reporters saw the police vehicles going out of the campus full of students, but were not able to say late at night whether the boys had been detained or were merely being ‘escorted’ as one of them put it, out of the AMU campus.

The president of the AMU Students Association has been hit directly with a tear gas shell. Several injured students have reached the hospitals. The situation is still far from clear, with the police having overtaken the AMU authorities who have little say now inside the University.

Meanwhile the police action in Jamia triggered off a wave of protests across university campuses through the night. Students protested against the police action and the CAB at :

Mumbai IIT

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Nadwa College, Lucknow

Banaras Hindu University

There is strong condemnation and worry about the police action in AMU with students appeaking for legal help from outside. Several tweets appeal to the conscience of Delhi residents saying that “you are helping Jamia students so please help us too.”

Pondicherry

(Developing story will be updated)