Not cowed down by the violence that broke out on Tuesday, thousands of students of Jamia Millia Islamia have gathered at the Vice Chancellor's office on Wednesday, for the second day in succession — and the campus has completely shut down. Following the violence that broke out on campus on Tuesday evening, the entire student community came together to protest against the administration.
While the administration continues to maintain that a scuffle had broken out, students claim that outsiders were hired by the administration to beat them up. The students claimed to recognise some of them as 'goondas' who were often seen outside the campus. Some students had to be hospitalised while several others complained about being injured, women students also alleged that they had been molested by the attackers.
The JMI administration claimed that the scuffle broke out when protesting students refused to allow delegates of a conference organized by the English department to leave the venue. The students allegedly refused to let the delegates move their vehicles and so a scuffle broke out between them and the students who were with the delegates. However, the students claim that the attackers were not students on campus and had been hired from outside. The students were particularly enraged by the fact that the guards just stood and watched while both male and female students were being beaten up by the 'goons'. "Why are guards on campus? Is it to protect the students or just check our ID cards? They just stood there and did absolutely nothing to stop what was happening, we could not even reach out for help. This was why to believe this was a fully planned attack," a student said.
WATCH: Students being attacked on campus on Tuesday evening
A few members of the Jamia Teachers' Association had tried to speak with the students, "What they were offering was not acceptable to us. Also, we have nothing against the JTA but we want somebody from the administration or the VC to address us. Until that happens, we are not going to call off this protest," a student said.
This is the tenth day of the protest but the first time that the campus has shut down entirely, "Even the library and the canteen are shut today. All these days, the college was functioning as usual. However, a group of us were consistently protesting but after what happened yesterday, thousands from the student community have come together to demand justice," they added.
Several other Universities have condemned the attack on the students and are organising solidarity protests on their campus as well. JNU student organisations and the JNUSU have also organised effigy burnings to show their support to the Jamia students. "We will burn the effigies of the VC, proctor and the entire Jamia administration in protest against their inhumane and shocking way of treating the students. Several students had to be hospitalised but the administration is not bothered. The university will be shut down for the time being and we want to express our solidarity to the students of Jamia," Apeksha Priyadarshini from BASO said.
We have reached out to the Jamia administration for a comment, we will upload this copy once they respond
