Anti-CAA stir: Protesters blocked from taking out march at AMU against youth's death

Student protesters tried to take out a candlelight march at Aligarh Muslim University here to mourn the death of a youth who had died of gunshot injuries sustained in violent clashes during protests over the amended citizenship act last month, but were blocked at the main gate itself, police said.

Sixty students including 50 unnamed persons have been booked by police at the Civil Lines police station in connection with the protests at the AMU campus on Saturday night. Ten students were named for violating Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code.

The protesters tried to march towards the collectorate, which is located close to AMU, to submit a memorandum to senior district officials but were thwarted from doing so by police personnel who reached the spot and blocked them at the Sir Syed Crossing, the main university campus gate, according to Civil Lines Circle Officer (CO) Anil Samania.

Earlier in the evening, a group of protesting students had announced that they were going to hold a candlelight march to mourn the death of Mohammad Tariq Munawwar, a youth who was injured on February 23 at Upper Kot and succumbed to his gunshot injuries late on Friday night at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College Hospital inside AMU, where he was being treated.

The protesting students were demanding the arrest of two persons who were booked in the case but are still at large.

CO Samania told media that the main accused Vinay Varshney has already been arrested and the police were following up on the matter.

"The protesters were insisting on proceeding towards the collectorate and they were not ready to hand over their memorandum at the Babey Sir Syed gate where senior district officials were ready to accept the memorandum," he claimed.

Later, the memorandum was handed over to officials, he said.

Samania denied that the police had baton charged the students or had used any force to disperse the mob.

Police had beefed up security measures in the old city as a precautionary measure following Tariq's death on Friday night.

On Wednesday, police had arrested Varshney, a prominent BJP leader from the city, who was the main accused in the shooting incident that left Tariq injured.