By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Around 2 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, when most of Delhites preferred to stay indoors due to the smoke surrounding the city, students from various colleges and universities and even few from Aligarh were trying to reach India Gate despite the heavy traffic jam.
They all had come to participate in the protest against Delhi police inaction in finding the missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed.
Najeeb Ahmed, MSc student in JNU went missing on the intervening night of October 14-15 after being beaten by a 20-strong mob of students affiliated with right wing ABVP inside the campus.
Jawaharlal Lal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU) had called for protest and United Citizens’ Vigil at India Gate on Sunday, November 6. To thwart the protest, Delhi police had already imposed section 144 and locked down all the entry and exit points to India Gate by placing barricades at various place.
The students coming from different parts of Delhi were not allowed to enter and even journalists were not permitted to go beyond the barricades even though no protesting student had made their way to the venue.
“We came from Jamia Nagar to take part in the protest, but Police isn’t allowing us.First the government and police don’t put in their efforts to find missing Najeeb and now when students are protesting they are shutting down their voice,” said Hasan Akram, a Jamia Millia Islamia Student.
Around 200 students of Jamia Millia Islamia were detained when they tried to make head toward India Gate.
Meanwhile hundreds of JNU students were also detained near India gate when they tried to march towards the protest venue. Missing student Najeeb’s mother was manhandled and ruthlessly taken inside the police bus when she was marching along with the student.
“Its total crackdown. It’s our democratic right to protest and curbing it has become a trend under the BJP rule and it is very serious,” said another protesting student, Sameer Keen.
The detained students were lodged across various police stations in the capital so that students couldn’t gather and protest outside a single police station.