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Updated: Dec 16, 2019 09:07 IST

As many as 50 Jamia Millia Islamia students who were detained after a clash with the Delhi cops were released in the early hours of Monday after being kept in the police stations for over six hours, police said.

The demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise took a violent turn on Sunday after protesters attempted to march towards arterial south Delhi roads and were stopped by the cops. The police said they had to resort to lathi-charge and fire tear gas shells after protesters started pelting stones and smashing cars and vehicles. The protestors set fire to at least four DTC buses, too, the police said.

Following the clashes, the police entered the university campus and detained several students. While 35 were detained at Kalkaji police station, 16 were detained at the New Friends Colony (NFC) police station near the varsity.

Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east) said, “35 students detained at Kalkaji police have been released.”

According to some Jamia students, 15 students at NFC police station were also released. Rishabh Jain, a postgraduate student of the varsity present at the police station, said the detained students were released and have been taken to Jasola Apollo hospital and AIIMS trauma centre for medical reports.

On Sunday night, hundreds gathered outside the Delhi Police headquarters at ITO demanding the release of detained students.

The university administration, students and teachers dissociated themselves from Sunday’s violence and said that people from outside the campus were involved in clashes with the police.

Condemning police violence against students, a group of Jamia’s alumni members said, “The police entered the campus without the university authority’s permission and beat up students, injuring dozens, and destroying the university property. Many of them were studying in the university library, which was tear-gassed, and students were detained. By the latest account, students are still being treated for injuries in different hospitals in Delhi.”

After the police crackdown on the Jamia students, protests erupted on the campuses across the country. The situation turned violent in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Sunday night after the students clashed with cops over the alleged police assault on the Jamia Millia Islamia students. The police fired tear gas shells at students outside the Aligarh Muslim University campus after protesters pelted stones at them.

Students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), in Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi and Kolkata’s Jadavpur University also held demonstrations in solidarity with the Jamia students.

Earlier on Sunday night, the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC) issued a direction to the SHO of Kalkaji Police Station to release the “injured” Jamia students. The commission also asked the police to take the students for treatment at a reputed hospital without any delay.