Student’s hand amputated as violence grips citizenship protests in India
The plaster covering Tazeem Khan's arms have been scribbled with 'We will fight' and 'AMU rejects CAA'.
Al Jazeera News, Aligarh, India
The sprawling campus of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) – India’s largest minority institution founded in the 19th century in the northern Uttar Pradesh state – wears a desolate look, a week after it witnessed unprecedented violence.
“AMU never shuts,” read a defiant handwritten poster, dangling from the steel fence around Bab-e-Syed, the imposing sandstone gate that opens to campus housing nearly 25,000 students. A group of women demonstrating there wanted to take their protest closer to the gate, a demand rejected by university officials who kept a close vigil on the demonstrators. Dozens of policemen in riot gear and holding batons stood on the other side of the gate. About 200 metres away, another crowd of AMU teachers held a silent protest as they marched in files along the two ends of the university’s main road, holding placards that said: “AMU against CAA” and “We reject CAA”. CAA or the Citizenship Amendment Act is a contentious legislation, pushed by India’s
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and passed earlier this month by the country’s parliament.
The law allows Indian citizenship to “persecuted” minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from India’s neighbouring countries – Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan – but blocks naturalisation for Muslims. Since CAA was passed on December 11, massive protests have been held with demonstrators decrying it as violating India’s secular constitution and aimed at marginalising its 200 million Muslims. At least 25 people have died so far in nationwide protests against CAA, with most deaths happening in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state. One such protest was being held in AMU, with thousands of students gathering at Bab-e-Syed every day and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the legislation. In the evening of December 15, dozens of policemen stormed into the AMU campus, chasing students into their hostels and other buildings, firing tear gas and stun grenades, and launching a baton attack on them as they ran for cover. In the police attack, launched simultaneously with a similar raid at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university, dozens of AMU students were wounded, some seriously, with at least one student losing his hand.
Doctors at the AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) Hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 70 injured students were brought to them on December 15. Mohammad Tariq, a 26-year-old doctoral student of chemistry, was hit by a smoke shell on his right hand. Pictures of his damaged hand, which looked like a bloodied piece of flesh, went viral on social media. “When I was hit, I fell on the ground and went unconscious. I don’t even remember who took me to hospital,” Tariq told Al Jazeera. His injury was so grave that the doctors at JNMC Hospital had to amputate his hand. “He won’t be able to write or do any work with his right hand,” said his doctor, Shahnawaz Iqbali. Tariq, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh state’s Firozabad district, about 100km (63 miles) from the university, frequently looks towards his right arm as he acknowledges dozens of visitors in the hospital ward. His hand is covered in white plaster up to the elbow, his eyes betraying the helplessness of losing a limb. Tariq’s father was with him in the hospital, but his mother had no information about the amputation. “I don’t want to share this horrific news with my mother for now. She is a heart patient and will die,” Tariq told Al Jazeera. “I’ll tell her everything once I go home.” On Tuesday, AMU spokesman Omar Peerzada told Al Jazeera that the university administration, in a “humanitarian gesture”, has offered Tariq a temporary job as an assistant professor of chemistry. In another room of the hospital lied 20-year-old Tazeem Khan, who also suffered multiple injuries. Two of his fingers were badly damaged. The plaster covering his arms have been scribbled with “We will fight” and “AMU rejects CAA”. When the violence began, Tazeem Khan told Al Jazeera, he along with his friends ran towards a guesthouse, nearly 100 metres from Bab-e-Syed. He said they locked the gate of the guesthouse from inside, hoping the policemen would not be able to enter.
Khan and eight others hid inside the toilet, from where they could hear the police entering the guesthouse and beating students hiding in the rooms. “We heard the students screaming and crying for help, but the police kept beating and abusing them,” Khan told Al Jazeera.
The sprawling campus of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) – India’s largest minority institution founded in the 19th century in the northern Uttar Pradesh state – wears a desolate look, a week after it witnessed unprecedented violence.
“AMU never shuts,” read a defiant handwritten poster, dangling from the steel fence around Bab-e-Syed, the imposing sandstone gate that opens to campus housing nearly 25,000 students. A group of women demonstrating there wanted to take their protest closer to the gate, a demand rejected by university officials who kept a close vigil on the demonstrators. Dozens of policemen in riot gear and holding batons stood on the other side of the gate. About 200 metres away, another crowd of AMU teachers held a silent protest as they marched in files along the two ends of the university’s main road, holding placards that said: “AMU against CAA” and “We reject CAA”. CAA or the Citizenship Amendment Act is a contentious legislation, pushed by India’s
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and passed earlier this month by the country’s parliament.
The law allows Indian citizenship to “persecuted” minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from India’s neighbouring countries – Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan – but blocks naturalisation for Muslims. Since CAA was passed on December 11, massive protests have been held with demonstrators decrying it as violating India’s secular constitution and aimed at marginalising its 200 million Muslims. At least 25 people have died so far in nationwide protests against CAA, with most deaths happening in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state. One such protest was being held in AMU, with thousands of students gathering at Bab-e-Syed every day and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the legislation. In the evening of December 15, dozens of policemen stormed into the AMU campus, chasing students into their hostels and other buildings, firing tear gas and stun grenades, and launching a baton attack on them as they ran for cover. In the police attack, launched simultaneously with a similar raid at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university, dozens of AMU students were wounded, some seriously, with at least one student losing his hand.
Doctors at the AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) Hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 70 injured students were brought to them on December 15. Mohammad Tariq, a 26-year-old doctoral student of chemistry, was hit by a smoke shell on his right hand. Pictures of his damaged hand, which looked like a bloodied piece of flesh, went viral on social media. “When I was hit, I fell on the ground and went unconscious. I don’t even remember who took me to hospital,” Tariq told Al Jazeera. His injury was so grave that the doctors at JNMC Hospital had to amputate his hand. “He won’t be able to write or do any work with his right hand,” said his doctor, Shahnawaz Iqbali. Tariq, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh state’s Firozabad district, about 100km (63 miles) from the university, frequently looks towards his right arm as he acknowledges dozens of visitors in the hospital ward. His hand is covered in white plaster up to the elbow, his eyes betraying the helplessness of losing a limb. Tariq’s father was with him in the hospital, but his mother had no information about the amputation. “I don’t want to share this horrific news with my mother for now. She is a heart patient and will die,” Tariq told Al Jazeera. “I’ll tell her everything once I go home.” On Tuesday, AMU spokesman Omar Peerzada told Al Jazeera that the university administration, in a “humanitarian gesture”, has offered Tariq a temporary job as an assistant professor of chemistry. In another room of the hospital lied 20-year-old Tazeem Khan, who also suffered multiple injuries. Two of his fingers were badly damaged. The plaster covering his arms have been scribbled with “We will fight” and “AMU rejects CAA”. When the violence began, Tazeem Khan told Al Jazeera, he along with his friends ran towards a guesthouse, nearly 100 metres from Bab-e-Syed. He said they locked the gate of the guesthouse from inside, hoping the policemen would not be able to enter.
Khan and eight others hid inside the toilet, from where they could hear the police entering the guesthouse and beating students hiding in the rooms. “We heard the students screaming and crying for help, but the police kept beating and abusing them,” Khan told Al Jazeera.
