CAA fire now rages in Capital
Protesters pelt stones, set buses ablaze; police lathi-charge agitators, fire tear gas, enter Jamia
NEW DELHI: Violence over the amended citizenship act rocked the national capital on Sunday, with public buses being set on fire in a busy south Delhi colony and police using tear gas on protesters gathered near Jamia Millia Islamia, an area that has remained tense following Friday’s clashes over the new law that has also roiled the North-east over the past week.
The police said people agitating against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) set fire to at least four buses and several two-wheelers in New Friends Colony, following which they fired tear gas shells and lathicharged the protesters to disperse them. The university said its students were not behind the violence, and that people from outside the campus were involved in the clashes with the police.
Jamia Millia Islamia chief proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan said the police entered the university by force and beat up staff members and students, who were forced to leave the campus. Students could be seen coming out of the university campus with their hands raised as the police escorted them. Rumsha, an undergraduate student at the university, said: “They [police] barged inside the library’s reading room and beat up students, dragging them out. We were not a part of the protests.”
The violence came two days after protesting students were lathi-charged by police at the university, after which 50 people were detained and large gatherings banned in the area.
On Sunday, dozens were injured in the clashes over four hours in the area surrounding Jamia Millia Islamia, police said. A witness said the protesters and police could be seen hurling stones at each. Agitators also vandalised property at some places, he said.
The police shut at least 16 Metro stations and several roads across the national capital to prevent students from gathering at venues such as the police headquarters. A large group, however, collected outside the Delhi Police headquarters near ITO around 9pm to protest the force’s handling of the situation. They raised anti-police slogans in an agitation call by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union and other students’ bodies.
Violent clashes have continued over the past week in the North-east over the new law, which gives citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains who entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. Government says the law does not include Muslims on the grounds that they are part of the majority communities in those countries, and therefore not persecuted. North-eastern groups feel the draft legislation will legitimise the influx of illegal immigrants into the region.
Two people succumbed to bullet injuries since Saturday night, taking the total death toll in police firing to four in Guwahati. Another person was killed as the oil tanker he was driving was set on fire during violent protests on Saturday in central Assam.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, however, said there should be a fair probe into allegations that policemen had poured something into the DTC buses before they were set on fire. He shared an image on Twitter that showed a man tilting a canister into a bus as he was surrounded by policemen.