Over JNU campus attack, protests got spread across the country

Thousands across the country registered their protest after a masked mob attacked students and teachers and vandalised hostels in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday.

Youngsters, mostly students from different colleges in Mumbai, assembled on the pavement across the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel near the Gateway of India to criticize the violence in JNU.

In the Capital, at least 500 students and alumni from universities in Delhi protested outside the old Delhi Police headquarters at ITO on Sunday night after the JNU attacks.

Protesters, largely students and teachers from Jamia Millia Islamia, JNU and Delhi University, claimed the police did not act promptly in stopping the attacks.

They also alleged that police in plainclothes also assaulted students inside the JNU campus and demanded immediate registration of a first information report, or FIR, into the incident. They also shouted slogans against the police and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) also took out a candlelight march on Sunday to protest the violence at JNU.

They demanded the masked mob, armed with sticks and stones, which attacked JNU students and destroyed the property must be arrested. They held the march inside the campus and ended at its Bab-e-Syed gate.

More than a dozen students, including the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president, and a teacher were injured in the attack last evening.

Members of JNUSU and JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) alleged that the attackers were from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (AVBP), a charge denied by the RSS-affiliated outfit.

Students and teachers said the attack happened at a “peaceful meeting” called by JNUTA and backed by JNUSU.

Reports said students blocked a police flag march led by special commissioner of police (law and order) RS Krishnaiah early on Monday in at least two places inside the campus.

They blocked the police at the t-point near Sabarmati hostel but the force managed to dodge the blockade and continued to march towards the convention centre.

The police were blocked again by the protesting students and they continued to shepherd the force towards the North Gate of the JNU campus.