Oxford University students protest police crackdown in Jamia, AMU

The students of top educational institutions in the world including Oxford, Harvard and Yale staged demonstrations against the police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Over 300 students from different universities have issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with Jamia and AMU students baton-charged by the Delhi Police during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The students and scholars at Oxford University staged a protest march to India House in London against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the police action on students.

Students at Oxford University protest against #CitizenshipAmendmentAct. pic.twitter.com/1WMc5f0WXg

— NDTV (@ndtv) December 17, 2019

In the statement, scholars from different universities condemned the “brutal police violence unleashed against students at Jamia and AMU as a gross violation of human rights.

On Sunday police fired tear-gas and struck demonstrators with batons in the capital, where thousands protested against the new law.

Video footage shot by a student inside the library and reviewed by Reuters shows dozens of young students – including several women – scrambling for cover, cowering beneath desks, and jumping over metal and broken glass dividers as they attempted to flee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government insists the Citizenship Amendment Act is necessary to help persecuted minorities from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who settled in India before 2015.

In a statement, the student community of Jamia said they disassociated themselves from the violence, which was perpetrated by some elements to discredit their peaceful protests.

Jamia’s Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar said police had entered the campus without permission, injuring around 200 students. The university, which has a large number of Muslim students, plans to seek a government enquiry into the violence.