The Jamia Coordination Committee held a Press Conference today, 12th February 2020, and described the violence wrecked against the students under the aegies of  Delhi Police  when they wanted to march to Parliament from their University on 10th Feb. The spokespersons said that they had continually approached the concerned officials of Delhi Police to request for permission for a peaceful rally to Parliament to place copies of the Constitution to the MPs in the context of the NRC CAA NPR policy package  which attacks the diversity of India. They had given police notice of their decision to take out a peaceful rally on 10th Feb and they began the march from the University. They stated that when they neared Holy Family Hospital about 2kms away, they saw ten lines of force standing. While initially thinking that the police would negotiate with them and allow the march to procede, they soon realized that the force was standing in front of barricades . The students stated that the Delhi police was accompanied by CRPF and even plainclothesmen and women police were initially not there. They  stated that the leading students were targetted and surrounded and physically brutalized. They were kicked, knocked with elbows and fists on face and chest and lathis were used from ground upward to injure in private parts and legs. Those who climbed the barricades were thrown down and kicked and the policemen stood on them. The girls were also pulled, kicked and beaten in this manner. Alongwith communal abuses were rained on them, along with taunts that they would be ‘given azadi’.This when   students from diverse communities were present both among the protestors and also among the 20 or more badly injured. Of these almost a dozen were presented to the press including the injured girls.Some of the injured girls also addressed the Conference.They clearly stated that they were physically beaten by kicks and by stamping on them after they fell. Women police also came and helped in beating.They were also ringed in by male police until they felt suffocated, punched in the abdomen and one said she sustained a hairline fracture of a rib. Several students, both boys and girls, said they fainted. Around 9 were detained, beaten up in the buses including a girl being slapped on the face by a male police and taken to Badarpur Police Station from where they were brought back and released after three hours. One or two students present stated they or students known to them had fractures. One girl stated that the police deliberately humiliated them by pulling their scarfs and one girl stated her clothes were also disordered by them.

The IFTU condemns the brutal physical attack on the students by the Police and whatever other special forces were called in. We condemn the deployment of CRPF or special forces against students and  the communal, anti muslim verbal assault on the students. We condemn the denial of democratic  right to the students of Jamia. Even earlier the police had been used to beat, insult and humiliate the students of Jamia on 15th December.

IFTU demands action against the police officers who orchestrated the violence on the Jamia students on 10th February and that those who communally abused the students be brought to book. We demand Central Govt clarify which forces were deployed against students and who have brutalized the students. We call on all sections of Delhi to stand with the students, condemn the police violence and defend the democratic rights of the students.

IFTU stands in solidarity with the students of Jamia.

Aparna

(President)

National Committee, IFTU