As many as 50 students, who were detained during protests at the Jamia Millia Islamia University on Sunday, were released in the early hours of Monday. They were detained by the police after violence broke out inside the university campus late on Sunday, during the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019.
The Delhi Minority Commission (DMC) had, on Sunday night, issued a direction to Kalkaji Police Station to released the students who were injured and kept in detention there or to take them to a reputed hospital for treatment. The commission had also directed the officer to file a compliance report by 3 pm on Monday and added that failure of this will attract appropriate action.
Of the 50 students, 35 were released from the Kalkaji police station and 15 from the New Friends Colony police station.
The protest around the Jamia Millia Islamia University took a violent turn on Sunday night. Four public buses and two police vehicles were torched as clashes took place at the New Friends Colony, near Jamia Millia Islamia, during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act on Sunday, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and firefighters injured.
Police used batons and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, but denied firing at them. However, videos of purported police firing, injured students in the university bathroom as well as footage of them bleeding emerged on the social media. The Delhi Police also refuted reports of any casualty during the clashes.
Following the arson on roads, police entered the Jamia university campus, where tension prevailed as several persons were detained for alleged involvement in the violence. Protests erupted in various parts across the country after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by both houses of Parliament and received Presidential assent soon after. The Act has been criticised widely since it aims to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who escaped religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and entered the country before December 31, 2014. The amended Act has put the entire Northeast region and West Bengal on the boil as people fear that it might exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration.
(With PTI inputs)