Hundreds gather outside PHQ to protest police action on Jamia students 

Hundreds of people including students, activists and political leaders gathered outside the old Delhi Police Headquarters (PHQ) late on Sunday evening to protest the police's use of brutal force against Jamia university students earlier in the day after an agitation against the new citizenship law near Jamia turned violent.

The protesters raised anti-police slogans outside the headquarters in ITO area, after a call for it was given by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU). Other students bodies endorsed the protest call.

Earlier in the day Sunday, protestors torched several vehicles near Jamia university and clashed with police.

Later, police entered Jamia Millia Islamia, barged inot the library and fired tear gas shells and brutally beat up students and varsity staff, including the girls.

Jamia Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan has said that the police forcibly entered the campus without taking permission from the university administration. The university has also denied the involvement of its students in any violence.

The Jamia Students union as well as the teachers association had promptly issued statements condemning the violence soon after the news of arson and vandalism broke. The students had dissociated themselves from any violent protests.

However, a posse of policemen barged inot the university library and ransacked it and beat up students. More than 100 students have been injured in the polcie crackdown who have been admitted in different hospitals in the area including the Holy Family and Al-Shifa hospitals.

The police have also detained around two dozen students and they are not being allowed to meet their lawyers.