Multiple journalists were heckled, abused or threatened as they attempted to report on the violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi late on Sunday. A mob of around 50 to 60 masked men and women, holding sticks and rods entered hostel buildings, assaulted students and vandalised the campus.

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan of Scroll.in was recording a video of the sloganeering right-wing activists at the JNU main gate when he was surrounded, called a “Naxalwadi”, shoved around and hit on the head. Karnika Kohli of Scroll.in reported that a group armed with bats and sticks was stationed near the main gate. She overheard one of the members of the group say: “Beat up NDTV guys if you see them.”

A mob outside the gates of the university attacked an India Today reporter as soon as he reported on the law and order situation in JNU. “The moment I questioned Law and Order in JNU, mob in presence of police in dark attacked me and my cameraman, broke my mike, hurled abuses, called me Jihadis, Naxali,” tweeted the reporter Ashutosh Mishra. “I asked a cop why are they silent, their reply – why did u go there?”

Another reporter of The Hindu claimed that a group of people, some of whom were masked, heckled him and asked him to leave. “A group of people, including masked men in support of ABVP, gathered around me and told me to leave the area after being identified as a journalist from The Hindu,” tweeted Sidharth Ravi. “Fled to avoid trouble.”