Irfan Pathan Concerned About Jamia Millia Students As Citizenship Protests Turn Violent

The protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act turned violent in Delhi on Sunday. With the violence escalating well into the night, veteran India all-rounder Irfan Pathan expressed his concern for the students after several of them were injured. The 35-year-old pacer, who has played 29 Tests and 120 ODIs for India, posted a tweet to offer support to the students after police entered the Jamia university campus on Sunday. "Political blame game will go on forever but I and our country is concerned about the students of #JamiaMilia #JamiaProtest," Pathan tweeted.

Protestors torched four public buses and two police vehicles in New Friends' Colony near the university during a demonstration against the act, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire-fighters injured. A Jamia students' body claimed they had nothing to do with the arson and "certain elements" had joined the protest and "disrupted" it. They also accused the police of high-handedness. The university had turned into a battlefield on Sunday as police entered the campus following protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which led to violence and arson.

Political blame game will go on forever but I and our country🇮🇳 is concerned about the students of #JamiaMilia #JamiaProtest

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) December 15, 2019

Several states in the northeast and West Bengal have been rocked by violent protests over the Act, which seeks to provide citizenship to non-muslim religious minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Jamia Millia Islamia, the prestigious Central University, became the epicentre of Delhi Police’s brutal crackdown against Citizenship Act protesters. While situation remains calm-yet-tense in this posh south Delhi locality, the police action has triggered massive protests by students across India. From Kolkata’s Jadavpur University to Hyderabad’s Maulana Azad National Urdu University, students have begun their agitation against the authorities.

Also Read | Citizenship 'Chaos': Jamia Crackdown Triggers Massive Protests In Hyderabad, Varanasi, Jadavpur

Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) students' union wrote to controller of examination of university, stating 'due to protests by MANUU students against police's attack on Jamia and AMU students, MANUU students are boycotting exams, request you to postpone the same.' While the Delhi Police maintains that the action was needed to curb the violence as stones were being pelted on them from inside the university, the students claimed that tear gas was lobbed inside the Jamia’s central library and some of them were dragged, thrashed by the cops.

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