Meet the girls who braved batons to save male friend

NEW DELHI: Amongst various videos of police action on students in Jamia that went viral on social media was a video which showed five girls trying to save their male friend from a bunch of policemen in New Friends Colony. They were seen surrounding him as the boy was dragged by Delhi policemen and was thrashed by batons. The girls challenged the policemen using force and stood in between the cops and the boy who was waylaid. The footage was widely shared on Twitter and Facebook as someone filmed the video on the mobile.

“It was a nightmare, the

Delhi police started brutal assault in New Friends Colony which forced us to rush for cover. We got inside a random house to save ourself, the cops wanted our friend Shaheen but we came in between him and police. However, as we moved forward, they somehow managed to drag him outside the house, it was then they started to attack him mercilessly as he fell on the ground,” said Aktarista, a BA ( Hons) student of Sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia.

The video shows police smashing batons at Shaheen Abdulla, a convergent journalism student originally from Kerela.

As the policemen charged, another girl Ladeeda Sakha

loon covered Shaheen in order to save him from police batons. She got some batons as well.

“Ladeeda is asthmatic, she was gasping for breath when the police used the volley of batons, you could see her in the video lying on the floor

later as we cried for help,” Aktarista said. The video also shows a man with a red t-shirt charging at the girls with the baton as they stood guard to save Shaheen who was bleeding from his nose.

“Initially the house owner let us in, but the policemen hurled abuses and intimidated him to push us outside, the man in the red was charging at us as if we were criminals,” Aktarista said. Another girl seen in the video shouting at the cops with specs and a red scarf is Aysha Renna N. She stood firm even after the cops threatened her with batons and also hit her. Ladeeda, Aysha and Shaheen Abdulla, all three are from Kerala.

“We have to raise our voice if we see injustice around us happening,we are not scared doing that,” said 22-year-old Aysha.