Students leaving Jamia varsity on Monday.
Twenty-one-year-old Sahul Khan was inside the library preparing for a clerical exam when around 20 police personnel barged into it and "pounced" on the students. With polio in the right leg restricting his movement, Khan could barely stand up from the chair before a policeman hit him with a stick on the hands.
"The police hit me and I limped out of the library," Khan, a History student, said. "It is a pity that they did not even spare differently-abled people."
"I am preparing for CBSE clerk recruitment exam scheduled for December 25. The university is shut now, where will I go?" he asked. "My family doesn't even know what has happened. They do not even have a television."
The university had turned into a battlefield on Sunday as the police entered the campus and used force following violent protests against the amended Citizenship Act.
Police allegedly beat up around five differently-abled students, according to the colleagues who protested against the "police brutality".
Arsalan, a student who is partially visually-impaired, said he was inside the MPhil section of the library when some protesters entered it with the police rushing behind them.
"A policemen hit me on the back with a stick. My glasses fell down when he hit me again. I told them I cannot see properly... that I am blind. They said: 'we'll show you what blindness means'.
"I showed them my identity card. When I tried to get out, another policemen hit me in the leg," he said.
Monis Raza, an engineering student with a caliper fitted in the right leg, joined the protest on Monday "out of sheer anger against what happened on Sunday".
"I was in the library when the police came chasing some protesters. For a person like me, it's not easy to get up and run instantly," the 20-year-old said.
"When they started thrashing the students, I covered my head with my hands. My hands took all the impact," Raza said, showing his wounds.
The varsity had declared winter vacation from Saturday till January 5 and even postponed the exams.
Raza's exams were to end on Thursday and he had a train ticket booked for Friday.
"Now, I don't know if I should go home or not," he said. "My family is worried, but my colleagues need me."
