Faces of three Jamia students from Kerala had gone viral on Sunday evening. A video clip posted on social media showed a group of ‘restrained’ baton-wielding policemen dragging a male student out and pouncing upon him. Four women then rushed to his rescue and confronted the policemen, forcing them eventually to back off.

By Monday morning, their resistance became the image of the protests against police brutality. The women shielded Shaheen, also from Kerala, despite the policemen swinging their batons menacingly and indiscriminately.

While talking to NH on Monday, they said that they escaped by the skin of their teeth only because the policemen realised they were being photographed by a group of bystanders.

The young girl in a maroon hijab is Aysha Renna and just behind her in a grey hijab is Ladeeda Sakhaloon while the young man who is seen desperately trying to close the gate behind them, but who was dragged out by the policemen, is Shaheen Abdullah.

“On Sunday, we were not even at the front. We were the last of the protestors marching through Sarai Jullena. Suddenly we found students marching ahead running back. We didn’t know what was happening. But we saw policemen hurling tear gas shells and we also quickly backed away.”