Ayesha said that the male student showed his college card, press card but was still attacked by police.
Highlights
- Ayesha Renna, Ladeeda Farzana seen defending male student from cops
- They surrounded the male student as cops beat him with sticks, kick him
- Police were brutally attacking students, chasing them: Ayesha Renna
Women students surround a fellow male student as police in riot gear beat him with sticks and kick him, in one of the many videos that have emerged from Sunday evening's violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi during protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
In the video, the women scream "Delhi Police, go back, go back," pushing back armed policemen who try to approach them. The police back off, but suddenly yank a male student towards them and start abusing and beating him.
A group of policemen beat the student with sticks until the women students run out and surround him. In a show of excessive force, the police are seen trying to get to the male student who lay bleeding on the ground as the women form a wall around him. Another woman student collapses.
The wounded student soon gets up and tells his friends, "Go inside, go inside".
It started when Ayesha Renna, the student in the video telling the police to go back, took her friend Ladeeda Farzana - her asthma had flared up because of tear gas - to the compound of a home for temporary shelter.
"The police were brutally attacking students, chasing them. The police were telling us to come out. I went ahead and asked them to go hoping they would not attack ladies using lathis," said Ayesha Renna, a master's student of history at Jamia. "Then they started attacking Shaheen (their male friend)."
Shaheen Abdulla, a student of journalism, said he showed his college card as well as press card but was still attacked by the police. "I rushed towards the girls to help them. The cops formed a group and said you come out. The girls were trying to shield me but suddenly they caught hold of me and dragged me outside."
As the video went viral, many expressed admiration for the students who faced the police.
A protest march by Jamia students on Sunday evening against the citizenship law descended into chaos after a mob clashed with the police. The new law, which facilitates Indian citizenship for non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, has been described by critics as a violation of secular principles in the constitution.
Police officers said they entered the Jamia campus only after the violent mob went in and started throwing stones at them.