Following days of unrest centered around New Delhi’s Jamia Islamia University, police have apparently broken into its grounds, making arrests and forcing dozens of students to leave. Tear gas has been used amid reports of clashes.
The heavy police response is linked to the wave of Muslim protests across the country triggered by the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which has sparked riots in the vicinity of Jamia Islamia University in the Indian capital. The area has become a flashpoint of clashes with police, although students say the campus itself has until now been peaceful.
Earlier on Friday, police stopped a protest march from leaving the university campus, firing tear gas and detaining more than 40 protesters. They said the tear gas was necessary, as students were pelting them with stones. However, the situation then escalated during the weekend.
These are not the stone pelters from Kashmir but the students of Jamia Milia Islamia attacking Delhi Police
Fresh footage shows that police entered the campus on Sunday evening, and chaotic scenes of students reacting to the incursion. Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan said that “no permission was given” for the officers to enter, yet they did so “by force.” Khan told ANI News that both staff and students were “beaten up and forced to leave the campus.”
Students inside the campus insist their protest was non-violent, and claim that the police entered the college and indiscriminately fired tear gas. Videos shared on social media show chaos in the university’s buildings, as the sound of smashing glass and what seem to be riot control weapon shots can be heard.
Police, meanwhile, said they’d had “no problem” with the university itself.
“Our only interest is to push the mob back, so law and order can be restored in the area. We have no problem with university students,” Deputy Police Commissioner Chinmoy Biswal told ANI. He added that six of his officers had been injured in clashes.
Chinmoy Biswal, DCP South East on being asked 'did police fire at the protesters?': There has been no firing absolutely. It is a false rumour that is being spread. pic.twitter.com/kHtm816H09
