Students hold protest in Pune against Jamia crackdown, CAA

Over 300 students and citizens staged a protest on the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus on Monday evening to express solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia who faced police action for agitating against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Students from various SPPU-affiliated colleges and members of organisations such as the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Yuvak Kranti Dal took part in the protest.

Holding placards with message such as 'fascism down, down,' Don't sell our Country', One Nation, All Religion' students shouted slogans and condemned the "brutality" unleashed by the Delhi Police on the protesting students.

"The CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens) will adversely affect the country in the long run and it is the collective responsibility of all of us to stop this," said Mohammad Bilal, an alumnus of the Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university who is currently working in Pune.

Bilal said since he can not go to Delhi to support the protesting students, he came to the SPPU campus to take part in the stir and express solidarity with them.

He said he is hearing a lot of horrific accounts of police brutalities against the protesting students.

Javed Talha, another alumnus from the Delhi based university, said, "If you look at the fabric of the country and if you keep pulling the threads, the time will come that cloth will vanish."