Jamia Students Not Alone In This Fight: VC Najma Akhtar In A Solidarity Message

The Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia on Monday in a video message said she stands in support of the students after the prestigious Central University, became the epicentre of Delhi Police’s brutal crackdown against Citizenship Act protesters on Sunday. Over 50 students were detained after police entered Jamia without permission from university officials. Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar said, "I am hurt by the way my students were treated. I want to let my students know that they are not alone in this fight. I am with them. I will take this matter forward as long its possible."

On Sunday night, the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC) issued a direction to the SHO of Kalkaji Police Station to release the “injured” Jamia students held there or take them for treatment at a reputed hospital without any delay. In the order, DMC Chairman Zafarul Islam Khan said failure to implement it will attract appropriate action.

Students across India’s top universities are protesting against police aggression shown to their peers in Jamia. From candlelight vigils to marches, students in Hyderabad, Varanasi and Jadavpur are showing solidarity for ‘their friends in Jamia’.

Meanwhile, students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences have also decided to boycott the Monday classes over the police action. “In the lights of events of relentless police brutality in the past week in universities of north East India, Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University We the students of TISS have decided to call a boycott of today's classes and field work,” a statement by TISS students said.

Soon after the violence, Jamia Millia Islamia Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan claimed that the Delhi Police entered the campus forcibly without any permission and beat up staff members and students who were forced to leave the campus.