A MONTH AFTER POLICE ACTION, JAMIA LIBRARY REMAINS SHUT

NEW DELHI: Ever since the police barged into the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), assaulted students and damaged university property on December 15 last year, the university library continued to remain sealed on Wednesday, with a cascade of green cloth down its façade. On Wednesday, there was a bouquet at the door. Pinned onto the green cloth are posters with messages such as “Get well soon Dear Library” and “Read for Revolution”— making it look like a memorial to the library that was extensively damaged during the police attack.

On the evening of December 15, students said they were in the Zakir Hussain Library on campus when the police attacked.

The university had said they had not given police the permission to enter, and although the administration had filed a complaint in the matter, an FIR is yet to be registered. The administration on Wednesday said they would move the court for it. Although classes have resumed, the library is still off limits for students. “Many of our friends are still recovering and our library is still sealed. It’s so painful to see the locked doors of the library,” said Saba Kareem, an MA student at Jamia. Mohammed Minhajuddin, an LLM student in Jamia, who partially lost his vision in the attack, said that the incident had changed his life forever. “I have been trying to get an FIR registered, but in vain. Doctors are trying to save my other eye from infection. I am just hoping to get well and return to my studies soon,” he said. Mujib-ur-rahman, father of Shayaan Mujeeb, a third-year BBA student in Jamia, who suffered severe leg injuries, said, “Doctors are saying he will be able to walk after three months. But he cannot run or lift weight for at least a year or more.” In the last one month, Jamia’s gate number 7— now popularly known as ‘Jamia Square’— witnesses protests every day against the CAA and the police brutality on students. Hardly an inch of the university’s boundary wall has been spared from banners.