Police registers 2 cases, Jamia students stage protest

Two cases have been registered in connection with Sunday's violence during the protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act even as a group of students from Jamia Millia Islamia students stood shirtless braving the winter chill outside the university gates to protest against the police action.

Police officials said two cases -- one in Jamia Nagar Police Station and another case in New Friends Colony Police Station. At least three buses were torched and a fire engine was damaged by protesters on Sunday evening even as police were accused of entering Jamia campus without permission and lobbing tear gas shells into a library besides targeting students.

In protest against the police actions, a group of students stood shirtless outside the university gates amid chants of "Inquilab Zindabad" and demanded a CBI inquiry into the "brutality unleashed by police."

"Our colleagues have been beaten up badly. The policemen entered bathrooms, libraries and beat up girls. Our protest is against the goons called Delhi Police," a research scholar who did not want to be identified was quoted by PTI as saying.

"We were inside the university when the police barged in. Around 20 policemen came from gate number seven and 50 others came from the rear gate. We told them we were not involved in the violence. They didn't listen. They didn't even spare women," Khanzala, who suffered injuries to the legs and abdomen, said.

Students and their supporters have posted several videos of policemen beating up protesters and the action inside Jamia library. One of the videos showed a group of girl students trying to save their friend from being beaten up by policemen by forming a human shield.

On Sunday evening itself, students had dissociated with the violence and said, "We have time and again maintained that our protests are peaceful and non-violent. We stand by this approach and condemn any party involved in the violence. We have maintained clam even when students were being lathi-charged. Some women protestors have been badly beaten up. Violence by certain elements is an attempt to vilify and discredit genuine protests."