Commenting on the crackdown on Jamia students, the Delhi Police said it had appealed to students before entering the Jamia Millia Islamia campus on Sunday to not indulge in stone pelting. In two videos shared by Delhi Police, joint commissioner of police, Devesh Srivastava, can be seen announcing that some miscreants have entered the campus who are indulging in stone pelting. "I am here between gate number 7 and 8. Please do not come out and don't throw stones, tubelights. Please sit inside," he is heard as saying.
In the video, the officer addresses the students as "beta" and tells them that the way they were hurling stones from both the sides was not right and that the police was in touch with the varsity's security staff and Proctor.
"Amongst you have entered some miscreants who are doing this (stone pelting)," he said.
He assured them that police personnel were there for their safety and also said the students should not do something that can "harm" the image of the varsity.
The police were widely condemned for entering the campus and baton charging students and using tear gas.
The Left-backed All India Students' Association (AISA) meanwhile, on Tuesday condemned the Delhi Police's action of filing an FIR against three Jamia Millia Islamia students in connection with Sunday's violence in the area around the varsity.
The FIR has been filed against seven persons, including former Congress MLA Asif Khan.
The other six accused persons have been identified as local politicians Ashu Khan, Mustafa and Haider, AISA member Chandan Kumar, SIO member Asif Tanha, and CYSS member Kasim Usmani, police said.
Rather than taking action against police officials who unleashed violence on the students, the Delhi Police has filed FIR against student activists of Jamia, the AISA said in a statement.
"From AISA, we want to state categorically that we cannot be silenced by these victimising tactics. We are fighting to defend our Constitution. We are fighting to save the secular fabric of India and the citizenship of Indian people," the student body said.
"The fight will only get intensified against today's rulers who want to divide the country on communal lines and who want to disenfranchise crores of Indians," it said.
Students at Indraprastha University protest police crackdown in Jamia
As the Delhi Police issued its clarification over the crackdown on students in Jamia Millia Islamia, students at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University on Tuesday continued protests against the cops. They were joined by their counterparts from National law University, Amity University and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.
Manmohan Singh, an alumnus of IP University and who organised the protest, said around 100-150 students participated in the demonstration.
"The right to protest is a democratic right. Using teargas and lathi-charging students who were sitting in the library and studying was uncalled for," he said.
Singh said the alumni and students currently studying at IP university participated in the protest, which was held at the main gate of the varsity.
A spokesperson from the varsity said there were two protests happening at the same time.
When an "anti-government group of students, mostly outsiders, were protesting against the NRC and other issues, a pro-government group of students also came there to counter the first group", he said.
After a while, both the groups dispersed and both protests were completely peaceful, the spokesperson said.
"They did not take any permission from the university to stage such protest outside the campus," he said.
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