Delhi: Protests over CAA turn violent as hundreds gather outside police HQ
New Delhi: Over 300 people gathered outside the police headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday evening to protest against the forces' handling the situation over the unrest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
The students from JNUSU, Pinjra Tod, AIDSO, AISA and DU called on the protests after the situation in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia took a violent turn, earlier on Sunday when the police authorities entered the campus and lathi-charged the students who were staging a protest in the campus, News18 reported.
News agency PTI reported that atleast 35 people were brought injured to Delhi's Holy Family hospital in Okhla out of which 11 have been admitted.
While Jamia's VC and Proctor condemned the police action and said that the police entered the campus by force, the DCP of South Delhi said that six police personnel were injured when the students started pelting stones at them and that their intention was only to keep a peaceful atmosphere.
Earlier in the day, protestors agitating against the amended Citizenship Act clashed with police and set afire DTC buses and a fire tender in New Friends' Colony in southeast Delhi leaving a cop and two fire personnel injured, police said.
A Delhi Fire Services official said four fire tenders were rushed to the spot.
One fire tender was completely damaged and two personnel were injured in the violence by the protesters.
Saimon Farooqui, the national secretary of Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India, claimed the protesters were peacefully sitting on Mathura Road when policemen tried to 'trouble' a couple of them, who resisted.
A Jamia Millia Islamia students' group said they had nothing to do with the arson and violence.
They alleged that 'local elements' joined the protest and 'disrupted' it. They said they returned to campus as the protest turned violent and were protesting on the campus peacefully.
''The students of Jamia Millia Islamia dissociate themselves from the violence that has erupted today. We have time and again mainatained that our protests are peaceful and non-violent. We stand by this approach and condemn any party involved in the violence. We have maintained calm even when students have been lathi-charged and some women protestors have been badly beaten up. Media personnel are a witness to these events. Violence by certain elements is an attempt to vilify and discredit genuine protests. We appeal to everyone to share this message,'' the statement read.
Some of the protesters claimed that the police baton charged them when they were holding a peaceful agitation.
''Police lathicharged the protesters and used teargas,'' Farooqui said.
A student claimed that after the policemen used force, some protesters torched buses and indulged in vandalism.
Catch the latest news, live coverage and in-depth analyses from India and World. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
