Students in parts of western and central India took to the streets on Monday to denounce police action on students of Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) protesting against the amended Citizenship Act which has ignited nationwide demonstrations.
A large numbers of students staged protests in different parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to condemn alleged police crackdown on agitating students of the JMI, a central university.
The JMI university had turned into a battlefield on Sunday as police entered the campus and also used force following protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which led to violence and arson.
The first to join the movement against the violence in JMI were students from the Aligarh University University (AMU) where there were clashes with the police late night on Sunday in which at least 60 students were injured.
Students of Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), the University of Mumbai, Aurangabad's Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) staged protests in solidarity with their counterparts at the Jamia Millia Islamia and AMU.
A large group of people gathered outside the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) complex on Monday afternoon to deplore police action on JMI students, an official said.
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Around 50 of them were detained, he said.
Along with activists, including Shamshad Pathan of Alp-Sankhyak Adhikar Manch, several faculty members, students of IIMA, CEPT University and other prominent institutions were also taken into custody for agitating on the footpath outside the prestigious business school.
Noted activist and classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai also took part in the demonstration, but she was not among those who were detained.
"We detained 50 protesters for not taking permission to assemble at the place, which is near a road. They were causing a traffic jam," Inspector H M Vyas of the Gujarat University police station said.
Hundreds of students from the TISS and the University of Mumbai held protests to denounce the BJP-led government over the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and also the proposed National Register of Citizen (NRC).
They condemned the police action against the students of the JMI and the AMU.
TISS students gathered outside the college premises in the morning, carrying placards with anti-government slogans.
"The nation is dying while you are sleeping," read one of the placards. The students also shouted slogans against what they called "Godi Media".
They shouted slogans condemning "police brutality and violence" against the JMI and AMU students. "The time has come to speak up guys," shouted a student.
Students assembled outside the TISS campus in suburban Deonar and demanded scrapping of the proposed NRC and the Citizenship Act, which was passed by Parliament last week and received presidential assent.
Fahad Ahmed, a second year student of PhD at the TISS, said the Delhi Police should learn a lesson from their Mumbai counterparts on handling protesters.
"We assembled here in large numbers but none of the officers even touched any student. We are here against the government and brutality of Delhi Police," he told PTI.
"We are here since morning and protesting peacefully. We want Delhi Police officers to be held responsible for the Jamia incident," he said.
Members of around 18 student unions assembled outside the Kalina campus of the Mumbai university and held a demonstration.
In Aurangabad, members of several student outfits held a protest at the Ambedkar university campus, Kunal Kharat, president of AIMIM state students wing told reporters.
A dozen students were detained at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad, central Maharashtra, and later released, police said.
In Madhya Pradesh, students of different colleges and groups of citizens staged a protest in Bhopal's Old City area to deplore the police crackdown on the JMI and AMU students.
The protest was held in the evening at a ground where at least 1,500 students from various colleges in Bhopal joined the peaceful agitation, said Asma, a student of the Motilal Vigyan Mahavidyalaya (MVM) who mobilised agitators.
At the site, the students waived placards with messages against the CAA and NRC and slogans asking for their withdrawal.
Police personnel were deployed at the spot to prevent any untoward incident.
Asma alleged voices opposing the implementation of "unconstitutional" CAA and the NRC are being suppressed.
"We are opposing the crackdown by the police on the students of Jamia Millia in Delhi and AMU. We demand judicial probe and action against officials guilty of attacking the students," she said.
On the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, another protest was held at the Iqbal Maidan in Bhopal against the police crackdown and to oppose the CAA and the NRC.
The new act grants citizenship to religiously persecuted non-Muslim refugees who have come to India till December 31, 2014 from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
CAA's opponents say the new law is discriminatory and goes against the tenets of the Constitution.