The Delhi Police detained two members of the National Students’ Union of India from outside Jamia Millia Islamia, and a public assembly has been banned around the campus under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. The university administration accused protesting students of vandalising university property and breaching security.
On Wednesday, the Delhi Police detained two members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Faizan and Zishan, from Gate No. 4 of Jamia Millia Islamia. The police took them to Fatehpur Beri before bringing them back to the Jamia Nagar police station, as reported by The Hindu. The students were later released without charges. The university has not held student union elections since 2006. Students have been protesting on the campus since October 12, with five of them going on hunger strike, to demand the restoration of their union. On Monday, the university administration announced that student union elections would be held within 15 days of the union’s constitution being approved. However, students said the administration had not addressed all their demands and accused them of pressuring them into signing an agreement early in the morning.
On Wednesday, the university accused protesting students and locals of vandalising university property and breaching security on Tuesday night. According to a post on social media by Jamia Millia Islamia, groups of protesting students along with locals had vandalised university gates and walls, brought down Gate No. 4 C, pelted stones, damaged CCTV control room, cameras, and disrupted their connections. A group of masked protesters also reportedly reached the university’s boys’ hostels in an attempt to mobilise additional support. The students denied these allegations and accused the administration of staging the vandalism to frame them. One student, quoted by The Hindu, said that the administration had erected aluminium sheets, and by evening themselves got them broken and are blaming students.
The university on Wednesday extended online classes until November 24 and announced that end-semester examinations would also be held online, saying that the campus situation was ‘not conducive for an academic environment’. Earlier, it had shifted classes online until November 8.
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