The violence that unfolded on December 15 at DelhiĄ¯s Jamia Millia Islamia was the first in the string of attacks by Delhi Police on students. A new footage has emerged online which shows Delhi Police personnel thrashing Jamia students, who have books in hands, in the library of the university.
The video claims to capture what happened inside the reading hall on the night of December 15 when violence broke out in the campus amid anti-citizenship law protests in the area.
The video has been released by a channel called Jamia Coordination Committee. The video shows policemen in riot gear entering the library and assaulting students who are sitting their peacefully. The timestamp in the video is 6.08pm.
In the footage, stuents are seen sitting in the library and police storms in and starts beating them up with batons.
It is, however, unclear as why the video has surfaced almost two months after the attack on the varsity.?
Protests that began on December 15 in Jamia reached their crescendo as violence was reported widely from its adjacent areas. Several buses were set ablaze and conflicting reports continue to raise suspicion over what the actual causes of violence were. The police, however, clamped down on students on a scale perhaps unimagined or unseen earlier.?
The university had turned into a battlefield as police entered the campus and used force, following protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The students were marching towards the Parliament to protest the contentious legislation. Police resorted to lathicharge and fired tear gas shells to stop them. Close to 50 protesters are were said to be detained by Delhi Police. They were released later.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi expressed her outrage over the video. Taking to Twitter, she wrote, "See how the Delhi Police is indiscriminately beating up pupils who are studying. A boy is showing his book but the policeman is hitting him with lathis. The Home Minister and Delhi Police officials lied that they had not beaten anyone by entering the library."
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also echoed the sentiment and called for punishment for the policemen involved. "CCTV footage has emerged showing police assaulting Jamia students without provocation. Horrifying. Exemplary punishment must be levied on these lawless policemen," he wrote on Twitter.