Section 144 imposed in JNU, Parliament Street

Section 144 was imposed in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Parliament Street area as around 80 students were detained at Parliament Street police station on Friday while marching towards the ministry of home affairs and Rail Bhavan as a protest against the alleged lack of concern in efforts to trace the missing student, Najeeb Ahmad.

More than 150 students, who had planned to protest outside the home ministry, were diverted by the Delhi police towards Jantar Mantar. Apart from former JNU students Shehla Rashid and Ashutosh Kumar, an uncle of Najeeb was also part of the protest.

The officials had even put up barricades in order to prevent them from moving ahead. However, some of the protesting students tried to break the barricades following which they were immediately detained by the Parliament Street police and bundled into waiting buses.

The students raised slogans against the government and police, accusing them of failing to trace Najeeb in the last 6 days.

Najeeb’s family, who has been camping inside the JNU campus for five days, also joined them later in the protest.

“We had planned to march towards the home ministry but the police diverted us to Jantar Mantar and barricaded the area. When some students tried to break the barricades, the officials took them to Parliament Street police station. In spite of this, we continued with the protest,” said a protesting student.

The detainees included JNUSU president Mohit Kumar Pandey and other union members.

“It has been seven days and there is no sign of Najeeb. He was beaten up in front of the senior warden of the hostel, security personnel, and many students. All the eyewitnesses have given statement against the identified students but they are roaming freely,” JNUSU president said.

According to a senior police official, around 70-80 students were detained as a preventive measure. “They were detained for almost 1 hour 40 minutes after which we led them away,” the official said.