Protest against murder attacked by police

Protest against murder attacked by police

By Sujatha Fernandes

At least 40 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi were injured when police attacked a protest of students marching to the prime minister's residence last week. The students were protesting against the murder at Siwan in Bihar of Chandra Shekar, the former president of JNU students' union and member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist.

More than 500 students were stopped by police, who used water cannons. The students streamed past them and broke a second security cordon, after which the police resorted to batons.

Many of the students were rushed to hospital with bleeding heads and injured limbs. A large number of the injured were women who were slapped and beaten with branches torn from trees.

A student, Ellora Puri, claimed that the police had verbally and then physically abused the students. "No warning was given nor did they use tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. They just charged us."

From GLW issue 273