Delhi violence: Jamia student arrested in connection with CAA protests at Jaffrabad in February
Safoora Zargar was accused of allegedly obstructing the road near the Jaffrabad metro station.
The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested an MPhil student at the Jamia Millia Islamia University
in connection with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act held in Jaffrabad in February, following which, large-scale communal violence erupted in the North East district of the Capital, PTI reported.
Safoora Zargar, who is also the media coordinator of the Jamia Coordination Committee, was accused of allegedly obstructing the road near the Jaffrabad metro station during the anti-CAA protests.
Earlier this month, a PhD student of the university was also arrested for allegedly conspiring to incite large-scale communal violence in Delhi. Meeran Haider, who is also the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal youth wing’s Delhi unit, had alleged that he was questioned by the Delhi Police’s special cell before he was arrested.
The Jamia Coordination Committee – a group of students and alumni from the university – demanded his release and said the students were being harassed even in the times of a massive health crisis in the country. “The country is facing a massive health crisis, however, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent,” they said. The committee said that Haider had been working to provide food and other supplies to the poor amid the lockdown and the charges against him were baseless.
Clashes had broken out between the supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposed it between February 23 and 26 in North East Delhi, killing 53 people and injuring hundreds. The police were accused of either inaction or complicity in some instances of violence, mostly in Muslim neighbourhood. The violence was the worst Delhi saw since the anti-Sikh violence of 1984.