STUDENTS STOPPED FROM MARCHING
NEW DELHI: In an almost eight hour stand off between Jamia Millia Islamia students and Delhi Police, hundreds of students from the varsity and various universities joined a long march on Thursday but were stopped near Holy Child Hospital.
The march which started from Jamia's gate number - 7 was supposed to reach Rajghat. However, the protesters were stopped near the hospital as heavy police was deployed in the area.
"We were peacefully going for a march, because we were following the idea of Mahatma Gandhi, but the police has placed barricades on our way.
We have the right to protest and march," said Arbaaz, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia.
The students, who were also joined by locals from nearby area, organised the march on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The march started off with an unidentified man shooting a group of students, injuring one, when they were crossing the varsity's sports complex area. "I was just 10 metres when the incident happened. The man very casually came in, shot the student, who was trying to persuade the shooter to not do anything reckless. He did it all so casually," said Shubham, a student of Jamia.
As the student was taken to the hospital, others resumed their march but were stopped near Holy Family Child Hospital. For a few hours, the protesters sat down on the road and raised slogans.
"They are not letting us go forward, so we have decided not to sit here and protest," said another student.
The protest then turned violent as students tried to break the barricade as police tried to stop them.
In the evening, the students tried to remove the barricades, even as the police kept requesting them not to do so.
"We need to move forward, otherwise they will always stop us from protesting. We have been sitting here for hours and our purpose is a peaceful march," said Aisha a Jamia student.
Even though the students were successful to remove the barricades, police did not allow them to move forward. Meanwhile, Jamia admin tried to remove students from the protest. "Many outsiders are a part of it. We want our students to be safe," said a man, who was trying to get students back to the university.
After about eight hours of stand-off the protesters broke off and joined the 24*7 sit in at Jamia's gate number - 7.