The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) on Thursday released a fact-finding report on the crackdown by Delhi Police at Jamia Millia Islamia and termed the police action “unjustified, excessive and unauthorised”.
Demanding a Commission of Enquiry to be instituted, the PUDR, in its report, said: “The right of citizens to protest must be recognised as inalienable and the practice of routine refusal to grant permission must be stopped. An FIR should be registered against the police for brutal use of force inside the Jamia campus.”
The PUDR also said that police stations in the vicinity need to be “sensitised” to counter “communal outlook and ensure civil behaviour”.
“The police personnel and officers who were part of the attack on students need to be shunted out of the police station without delay. Whatever evidence remains at Jamia should be preserved and we appeal to the Delhi High Court to take cognisance of the issue,” said activist Harish Dhawan.
The report named ‘Bloody Sunday: Police Brutalities at Jamia University 13-15 December, 2019’ added that there was a “clear template” of crackdown by the police on protesters across the national capital.
“The patterns have been similar – lathi-charge, tear gas firing followed by large-scale detentions and denial of legal and medical aid to detainees. Targeted attacks on Muslim neighbourhoods were seen at Seelampur-Jaffrabad, Daryaganj and Seemapuri. The most brutal of these were in Daryaganj where 11-12 minors were detained till late in the night and without any medical or legal aid,” the PUDR said.
The report by a six-member PUDR team added, “The residents of the area surrounding the Jamia campus have a high degree of distrust on the police. The police have, on its part, provided reason on past occasions to earn this distrust. The spiteful verbal abuse noted in this report is a reflection of the same.”
