NE NEWS SERVICE

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI/PONDICHERRY/CHENNAI, DEC 16

Students from several campuses across the nation, including three Indian Institutes of Technology, and two Indian Institutes of Management, Pondicherry University and Jadavpur University in Kolkata, held protests on Monday to express their solidarity after the alleged police brutality against the protesting students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and the Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh.

Around 50 persons who gathered outside the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) complex here on Monday afternoon to protest against police action on Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) students a day earlier in Delhi were detained, an official said.

Activists, including Shamshad Pathan of Alp-Sankhyak Adhikar Manch, along with several faculty members, students of IIM-A, CEPT University and other prominent institutions were taken into custody for agitating on the footpath outside IIM-A.

Noted activist and classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai also took part in the demonstration, but she was not among those detained.

The official said the protesters, mainly from outfits like Alpsankhyak Adhikar Manch and ANHAD, besides other NGOs and civic rights groups, did not have permission to assemble at the place, adding that they would be released soon.

“We have detained 50 protesters for not taking permission to assemble at the place, which is near a road. They were causing a traffic jam. They will be released soon,” Inspector H.M. Vyas of Gujarat University police station said.

Activist Dev Desai said besides activists, several faculty members, students of IIM-A, CEPT University and other prominent institutions were detained for holding protests on the footpath outside IIM-A.

Earlier in the day, protesting Delhi University students were allegedly beaten up by police officials, and some were detained. There were reports of stones being thrown at the police in Lucknow’s Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema college as protests spilled over to colleges across India. Around 50 protestors outside the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore were detained, police said.

Jamia students also held a rally against the police action. The university’s vice chancellor backed the students and said an FIR would be lodged against the police for entering the campus.

Members of the Students Council of Pondicherry University (SCPU) on extended their support to their counterparts in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University here on Monday, said President of the Council Parichay Yadav and secretary V. Kuralanban.

The Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) national vice president V. Sharbudin Ahmed and Aneez Ansari, North India Zonal Secretary and Delhi State President Parvez Ahmed of Popular Front of India condemned the attack on the students of Jamia Millia University here on Monday.