AMU students back Jamia brethren, police attack them too!

Image Courtesy: PTI

On Sunday, within hours of laying siege to Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMIU) campus, police unleashed brutality on students of another historically Muslim university.

Trouble began on Sunday evening when students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), who had been protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), tried to organize a march to express solidarity with their fellow students from JMIU. But the AMU students came in for a rude shock when police rained lathi blows and fired tear gas shells to disperse them. 

Then the police entered the campus to unleash yet another reign of terror.  Over 100 students are said to have been injured in these clashes, and an unspecified number have been detained. AMU registrar Abdul Hamid told reporters that the police entered the campus late on Sunday night and clashes took place on campus. 

Internet services have been shut down in Aligarh for 24 hours. But this did not stop other universities across India to show solidarity with AMU and JMIU students. So far students of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, IIT Bombay and Banaras Hindu University have held protests and demonstrations to showcase dissent against an authoritarian regime.

Police allege that action against students was necessary as their protest had turned violent and that the students allegedly pelted stones at the police. Police also say that they entered the campus only after receiving permission from university authorities. Police have now said that they will evacuate all hostels and send the students home.

“We are evacuating AMU today, we will send all students home,” UP Director General of Police OP Singh told NDTV. He added, “We were authorised to use force by the AMU Vice-Chancellor, but remained spectators till things got out of hand.” Police also claim that they did not engage in any vandalism. This, however, appears to be contradicted by videos showing cops smashing bikes.

The university has decided to temporarily shut down operations. “The university is closed from today (15/12/2019) till 05/01/2020. This is being done due to disturbances created by some antisocial elements for last three days,” the registrar told reporters.