Violence erupted in southeast Delhi following a clash between police and Jamia Millia Islamia students who were protesting on Mathura Road against the amended Citizenship Act, on Sunday, December 15, 2019.
The protesters torched DTC buses and a fire tender was damaged, police said. Students said that the police baton-charged them while they were holding a peaceful protest. PTI quoted a Jamia university official as saying that police had entered the campus and blocked the gates. It also reported that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation had closed the gates of the Sukhdev Vihar Metro station.
A Delhi Fire Services official said four fire tenders were rushed to the spot on Mathura Road. One fire tender was completely damaged and two personnel were injured, he said.
Varsity's officials have issued a statement clarifying that the people from nearby areas caused the violence and not the students of the university.
'On today’s violent incident in the vicinity of JMI it is clarified that it happened during the protest organised by the people of the nearby areas and not by JMI students,' an official statement said.
The university has already declared winter vacation and postponed semester examination after 13 December incident, it said, adding that a large number of students in the hostel have already left.
According to Saimon Farooqui, national secretary of Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India, the protesters were peacefully sitting on Mathura Road when policemen tried to 'trouble' a couple of protesters, who resisted. Thereafter, police started lathi-charging the protesters and using teargas, he alleged.
Another student said that after the policemen used force, some protesters torched buses and indulged in vandalism.
An injured student at Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday, December 15, 2019. He could only say that the police barged in and started hitting students, before being led away to hospital Photo by Furquan Ameen
A Jamia Millia Islamia students' group said they had nothing to do with the arson and violence. They alleged that 'local elements' joined the protest and 'disrupted' it. They said they returned to campus as the protest turned violent and were protesting on the campus peacefully.
DMRC closed the entry and exit gates of Sukhdev Vihar Metro station on Sunday evening in view of the violence. 'As advised by Delhi Police, entry & exit gates of Sukhdev Vihar and gate no. 3 of Ashram have been closed. Trains will not be halting at Sukhdev Vihar,' the DMRC tweeted.
Entry and exit gates of Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar and Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh have also been closed with no trains halting at these stations.
Sporadic incidents of violence were also reported from Bengal on Sunday. Protesters blocked important roads in the Amdanga and Kalyani areas of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts, police said. They also blocked roads and railway tracks at some stations in the districts, they added.
In Domjur area of Howrah district, protesters organised road blockades and shouted slogans against the Narendra Modi government.
Meanwhile, in Guwahati, Assam, two more persons succumbed to gunshot wounds, taking the toll in police firing during violent protests against the citizenship law to four, officials said on Sunday. Gauhati Medical College and Hospital Superintendent Ramen Talukdar said that one person died on Saturday night and another person lost his life on Sunday morning.
'Ishwar Nayak died last night and Abdul Alim succumbed to his injuries this morning,' he said. Twenty-seven people were admitted to the hospital with bullet injuries since Wednesday, he added. However, protesters claimed that five persons have died in police firing during the agitations against the contentious law.