By Meher Ali, TwoCircles.net
Syed Zamin Mehdi (18)’s older brother, Syed Mohammad Mehdi was one of the students who was detained by the police and rapid action force (RAF) on Sunday night during protests. He was released at 8.30 pm from Civil Lines Police Station yesterday after being pressured to do so by local Aligarh residents. The police beat Mehdi up who suffered head injuries and had to get 5 stitches. He is now on his way home.
burnt and its charred remains are scattered on the bed and on the
floor of this hostel room.
Another student, Afjad Thakur, a second-year law student was picked up by the police soon after he visited his friend, Nasir Chaman, a first-year law student at the hospital Sunday night. Thakur was released 8 pm Monday night as well. Chaman said that Thakur told him that he, along with 26 other students were taken to the outskirts of Aligarh. Ten of these student, identified as outstation students by their University ID card, were separated from the rest, stripped naked, and beaten by the police with lathis and leather belts. Thakur was one of the 10 as his ID card listed his old Moradabad address though he is a local Aligarh resident. He told Chaman that he has bruises all over his body and 5-6 stitches on his elbow.
What started as a demonstration in support of students of Jamia Millia Islamia and against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 ended in a night of terror for students of Aligarh Muslim University.
bullet that was also fired through the broken window.
Chaman went to protest Bab-e-Syed, the University’s main gate at about 8.50pm. He saw that 50-60 students had gathered at the Registrar’s Office right outside of this gate. They had broken the smaller of the 2 gates that flanked Bab-e-Syed. He also saw police and personnel from RAF throwing teargas at the students who ran back into the university through the same small gate.
Chaman also moved further inside the university as the teargas continued. That was when he saw what looked like a teargas cylinder next to him. He said that as soon as he picked it up to throw it aside, there was a blast and his hand exploded. He described the device as being cylindrical like a teargas bomb, but unlike it, it was wider and bigger, about the size of a half-litre water bottle.
Other students at the protest also mentioned this bomb-type device that they called ‘noise bombs’ and that exploded in their hands, when they attempted to throw it , mistaking it for tear gas. Moreover, the tear gas used on the student was itself expired, said Ayesha (20) who did not disclose her last name or area of study for safety reasons. By the time Chaman retreated, student numbers had swelled to about 2,000 or more. He saw the main university gate being broken by the police at around 8.30-9 pm.
Even as the students retreated, the police and the RAF continued to fire teargas, rubber bullets, and the above mentioned explosive device.
same in his hands. He said it didn’t hit him hard as he was wearing a jacket.
Some of them fled to nearby hostels, specifically Morison Court and SS Hall (North).
Ahmed started pleading with them; “Main staff hoon mujhe mat maro”. (I am staff please don’t hit me) That was when the let him go and an ambulance picked him up.
Zamin is now in possession of CCTV footage that shows the RAF and the police beating up his brother, Syed Mohammad Mehdi and others. The footage shows the police hitting his brother on the thighs with the rifle butt. The three students, Zamin said, were also dragged and beaten by lathis including on their head the entire way to a white colored van that was parked outside Morison Court. He said they were all limping and all the armed forces were carrying real guns.
unburnt notebooks remain on the window sill. The rest are charred as
are two mattresses right next to the window.
I met another student, a 19-year-old, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), who agreed to give an interview but seemed disoriented as he started to speak. A friend of his brother, Aaban Khan (25), who was standing next to me and had been attending to him, took me aside, shortly after, and told me that this student was not in a condition to speak. Khan then told me what had happened to him. Like the students at Morison Court, he too did not take part in protest but was behind the locked gate of his hostel, SS Hall (North). A policeman threw a tear gas cylinder over the gate at him. He inhaled the teargas and was disoriented. Khan and others made him drink salt water and half an hour later he fainted. They then took him to JNMC, where his body froze and became very stiff. The doctor told Khan that he had had a seizure.
one was the one that students claim was used to pick up the three
Morison Court hostel students on Sunday night after the forces burned
their hostel room.
Aftaab Ahmed (24), M.Tech student, joined the protest at around 11pm. A teargas cylinder landed near his feet causing him to suffocate. He ran and was chased by the RAF and police who called him “katua”, a racist slur for Muslim men. He was tear gassed a second time. He escaped by running through the back roads into his hostel.
When Chaman entered the operating theatre for his hand at 1am, and came out at 3am, none of his friends were there to meet him. He was later told that they fled as the police and RAF came all the way to the hospital to arrest more students.
Another injured, a 22-year-old student at JNMC, whose friend requested that his name and details be withheld, was hit on the head with a lathi after he joined the protest at around 8.30 pm. The last he remembers is the police and the RAF advancing to the university guest house. He regained consciousness Monday morning and said to the doctor: ” Exam hai, jaane dijiye (I have an exam, please let me go.)”.
in full riot gear inside AMU.
Meher Ali is an independent journalist based in Aligarh. She reports on human rights and social justice related issues and blogs about Aligarh at meheraligarh.blogspot.com. Her twitter is @Aashi310.