Over 100 injured after India police storm universities
More than 100 people have been injured after police in Delhi fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters at Jamia University, with activists and students accusing the police of using force inside the university campus, reports Aljazeera.
Students at Jamia Millia Islamia have been protesting against a new Indian citizenship law that will grant citizenship to religious minorities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians - from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but excludes Muslims.
On Sunday, local residents joined students as they tried to march towards parliament against the law that critics say weakens India's secular foundations.
Clashes erupted after police tried to disperse the demonstrators at Sarai Julena area of south Delhi near the university campus, with buses and private vehicles set on fire.
The police stormed the Jamia University and detained nearly 100 students following the arson, although the university authorities said their students did not take part in the violence.
The students were released in the early hours of Monday after hundreds of students and activists staged protests in front of the Delhi Police headquarters in Delhi. Solidarity protests were reported from university campuses from across the country in the wake of the police action.
"The police have entered the campus by force, no permission was given,” said university Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed. "Our staff and students are being beaten up and forced to leave the campus," he told ANI news agency.
Jamia Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar also backed the students saying she was "hurt by the way my students were treated".
Police entered library
Mohmmad Minhaj Uddin, a LLM student at the university, told Al Jazeera he was beaten by police and wounded in his eye.
"I don't know why I was beaten up. I wasn't even protesting. I was in the university library when police entered the campus," the 26-year-old told Al Jazeera.
"They broke the lock of the library gate and entered inside and beat everyone who came in their way," he said. "In panic, I fell on to the ground. They hit me on the eye."
Mohammad was rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital in Jamia Nagar, where he received treatment.
A video showing police thrashing a group of students was widely shared on social media, while another video showed students walking with their hands raised has caused an outrage.
Officials at Al-Shifa and Holy Family hospitals said more than 100 people with injuries had been brought in following the clashes.
Police defend action
A senior Delhi Police official defended the police action. "About 4000 people were protesting and police did what they did to disperse them when the crowd burnt buses," said Chinmoy Biswal, a senior police officer in the area. "If it had been a peaceful mob it would have been dispersed peacefully."
He added that police entered the campus to maintain order and that six officers had been wounded in the clashes.
Local authorities ordered all schools in southeast Delhi to remain closed on Monday. Jamia University had already said, on Saturday, that it was closing early for the winter break.
About 130km away from the capital, police in Uttar Pradesh state also used tear gas at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India's largest minority institution. The university announced that it was shutting early for the break after student protesters clashed with police on Sunday.
Muslims groups, the opposition, rights activists and others in India say the new law is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalise India's 200 million Muslims. He denies the allegation.
Modi, speaking at a rally in the eastern state of Jharkhand on Sunday, blamed the opposition Congress party and its allies for inciting violence against the citizenship law.
The Congress party in turn slammed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Twitter saying, the government "has failed at its duty to maintain peace in the nation."
Sunday was the fifth straight day of protests across the country against the new law, with northeastern state of Assam witnessing the deadly violence. They fear the new law will encourage more immigrants to settle in the region.
At least six people have died in the state, which has historically seen protests against undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants.
Authorities have shut down internet access in several parts of the affected states in an attempt to maintain law and order.
