Against CAA

NEW DELHI: “I was beaten so badly I thought I was going to die.” Students of Jamia shared stories of police brutality at a press conference in Delhi, recounting the attack, the abuse, the merciless beating that left them with broken bones and completely terrorised.



Without even being a part of the protest, Mohamad Mustafa- a MBA student of Jamia- was thrashed so mercilessly that he thought he was going to die. He said he tried to hide under a desk in the Urdu library where he was studying when the police broke in, “they were aiming for my head, I put my hands up while they beat me, both hands were broken. They smashed my laptop. They kept asking me, what problem do you have with Modi and Shah, and then asked me to say the kalma that is usually before a person dies.”



Hanzala Mozibi, a student of English, said the police had beaten the students twice breaking the CCTV cameas, the mobile phones, and whatever they could find. “One of the police officers asked my age and then said, sale 21 saal ki Umar me Tu aazadi dilayega”, Mozibi said.



“We were led out with our hands raised as if we were criminals- I remember one of the boys' hand was bleeding and wasn't able to walk properly, the police kept abusing 'dekho is madha****d ke bachhe ko' and a female officer commented on me saying 'Ye dupatta sar pe rakh le varna sar phat jayega”, Chanda, another Jamia student said.



“We never tried to cross the barricades and confined our protest in the Jamia premises only. But the police suddenly detained all the girls who were in front, and then there was mayhem. We were chased inside the campus and badly beaten”, Asif Iqbal recounted.



Many injured students claimed that they didn't receive any painkillers or medical facilities, were refrained from meeting the advocates, and the police officers had deliberately hid their name plates so that no one could note down their names.



Rahib Musif and Akhtar Ista said that the police manhandled the women. “The girls who were in the library, ran towards the washroom to hide from the police but they broke the door and came inside switched off the lights, and molested us and kept verbally abusing us (Randi, Behan ki La***, Pakistan chale jao yaha kyu mar rhi ho) till we cried out loud,” Akhtar Ista who was one of the trapped students said.



“ I was, standing near the central canteen, talking with my mother when they attacked me and the last sentence I said to my mother that "Ammi shayad mai mar jaunga aaj". I remember when I was crying they were laughing at me”, Musif said.



The students broke down several times while speaking, and others who had accompanied them also cried. The reporters however, remained unmoved with television crews asking them not to cover their faces while they cried, for a better shot. Other reporters wanted to know “why did you not come earlier, why have you come now.” Another asked, “how many times do we have to write your names.”



At another press conference in the city Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad said, “Mera mulk jal raha hai, yeh sochkar ki mai jal jaunga mai mulk ko jalne nahi dunga.”



Chandrashekhar Azad “Ravan”, the founder-president of the Bhim Army was addressing the media along with Advocate Mehmood Pracha at the Press Club of India.



Azad, who founded the Bhim Army in 2014, slammed Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Citizenship Amendment Act and also condemned various ministers of the BJP and its allies for supporting the Act in Parliament.



He said he will be organising a demonstration on Friday, December 20 at 3pm. “I request everyone to join me as I protest from the same spot from where Maulana Azad protested against the British when partition was announced,” Azad said. He held up a copy of the Indian Constitution and pledged Civil Disobedience.



“Our biggest concern is OBC, SC, ST brothers and sisters. They will lose the lawful ( kanooni) rights that they had. They will lose the provisions they have in the SC ST Act, overnight. Their right to vote will be taken away from them,” Pracha added“By the time they correct your spellings and grant you citizenship, years will have been gone and you won't have any right to vote. That is what they did in Assam,” he said



“Kisiko mulk se bahar nahi jaane denge. Jo bhi Baba Saheb mai manta hai. Humara mulk nahi lootne denge,” Azad said adding, “Hum apne mulk ko bachaane nikle hai kyunki jo pichle kuch dino mein ua hai woh bilkul galat hua.”