“We had been holding peaceful demonstrations all week and had no intention of organising one on Sunday December 15,” recalls M Salman Imtiaz, the outgoing president of the AMU students’ union, a person many accuse of ‘masterminding’ the violent protest.
“I have heard these accusations before. There is no question of being a mastermind of any kind. I have been walking around freely for the last two days. I f the police think I have done something wrong, let them arrest me,” he asserts.
Going back to the night of the violence he says, “A few of us had gathered to discuss the plan for protests and demonstrations in the coming week. We had invited Kannan Gopinath and Harsh Mander, and were finetuning the program when we heard about the crack-down at JNU.” The students then decided that this violence against their fellow students warranted a protest, but vowed to ensure that it remained peaceful. “Word spread and we decided to gather at our usual spot by the Baba Syed gate. But things were very different that night. I saw that one fourth of the gate had been cut and removed. There was heavy deployment of police and RAF,” says Salman.
“Some students were already protesting outside. Sensing trouble and wishing to help the students protesting outside come in, I requested my friends to try and break the lock on the gate, because the portion that had been cut out did not offer enough space for all of them to enter the safety of the campus quickly. It took about 20 minutes, but we managed to break the lock. The protest started getting violent from here on,” he says.
This is when stone pelting began that the police used as a reason to retaliate. “That’s when I spotted some men who clearly did not look like students. There were at least 10 to 12 of them and they were all in the 40-45 year age group. They were the ones who were pelting stones. Some of them had even covered their faces and were trying to pretend to be students so that they could become a part of the protesting crowd. The police and RAF in turn started firing tear gas shells and rubber bullets. I even heard firing… as in live ammunition,” says Salman. “The police and RAF people were using the same portion of the gate that had been cut as some sort of a shield. They got permission from the University authorities and then entered our campus,”says Salman.
The students got scared and started taking refuge in nearby buildings or rushing back to their hostels. “Things go extremely violent. The students were beaten mercilessly and I heard the RAF hurl communal slurs at us when they beat us. That’s when a rubber bullet hit me in the chest and I lost consciousness,” recalls Salman.
When he came to, he had been admitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital. “The doctor who was treating me confirmed that I had sustained a rubber bullet injury. I saw many other of my fellow students there. One had severe head injuries. I also found out later that one boy had to have his hand amputated.
Summarising the timeline and responding to allegations of being one of the chief perpetrators of the violence Salman says, “The protest started at about 8:20 that night when around 100-1200 students gathered at the Babe Syed gate. I reached the spot at about 8:30. We started breaking the lock at about 8:45 and it took about 20 minutes to accomplish that. I got shot and lost consciousness at about 9: 15 and regained consciousness between 11:30 and 12 midnight in the hospital. How could I have possibly led the violence if I was passed out in a hospital?”
“Because of the tear gas inhalation and the injury to my chest I couldn’t even breathe without a nebulizer till about 4 in the morning,” he recalls. Responding to allegations of “going underground” to “dodge the police” Salman says, “I went home. I was there all this while recovering. Two days ago, I started stepping out. I heard about a FIR against me and I am out in the open because I know that I have done nothing wrong.”
Categorically denying any links to any “vested interests” Salam insists that he is just a research scholar. “I am NET JRF qualified and am currently a senior research fellow with the Social Work department. I have three published papers and my credentials speak for themselves,” he says.
The University will reopen on January 5, when Salman says peaceful protests will continue. He also demands the removal of senior university officials for their alleged complicity in the violence against students as it was they who permitted the police to enter the campus.
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All images courtesy M Salman Imtiaz.