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New Delhi, Dec. 27 (PTI): Police detained over 350 protesters including women who tried to stage a demonstration outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan here on Friday against alleged police brutalities in the state following agitations over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, officials said.
The Jamia Coordination Committee, which comprises students from various political groups active on the campus, had called for a "gherao" of the UP Bhawan, where prohibitory orders were clamped under section 144 of CrPC.
The JCC later said in a statement that the gherao did not take place because of the police crackdown and a memorandum prepared by JCC could not be submitted. It condemned the "ridiculous action" of the police.
Police said the agitators had no permission to hold a protest at the site.
They said the protesters did not follow police directions after which 357 including 75 female were detained and taken to Mandir Marg and Connaught Place police stations. They were subsequently released.
Leader of the protesters, Badre Alam, who is a student of Jamia Millia Islamia, was informed by the police on Thursday to take proper police permission and hold the protest at a designated place such as Jantar Mantar. "But he didn't pay any heed to the advice of police," a senior police officer said.
There was heavy security deployment outside the venue and most protesters were detained even before they could arrive there. Police were seen chasing protesters on the other side of the road as well and detaining them.
Personnel from adjoining police districts were also deployed to maintain order.
A man, who had come for the protest, sat on the road when police tried to detain him and questioned the action. He was detained and taken in a police van. Women protestors were detained by women police personnel.
A student, who was being detained, raised slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act. A woman protester said, "hum nahi jayenge, hum nahi jayenge (we will not leave)" while being detained and taken to the police station.
In a statement, Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) said they had called for a peaceful gherao of UP Bhawan beginning from 3 pm on Friday, but they were met with the "now-normal repression tactics by the Delhi Police". They condemned the "ridiculous actions" of the police.
Protestors travelling to the UP Bhawan in buses were detained and taken to different locations, including the Mandir Marg police station and Connaught Place police station, they said.
More than 300 students from Jamia, JNU and DU were detained and multiple students were manhandled, they alleged.
Almost all the buses which left from Jamia Nagar were detained by the police, while individual protestors who took other means of transport were detained separately.
The gherao did not take place because of the police crackdown and the memorandum prepared by JCC was also not submitted at UP Bhawan, the JCC alleged.
They alleged that the police could not show any papers to prove that CrPC Section 144 was imposed when the students demanded at the Mandir Marg police station.
The students staged protests outside Connaught Place and Mandir Marg police stations, demanding the release of detained students and raising slogans against the Citizenship (Amendment)Act.
Lawyers also reached police stations and offered legal help to those detained, they said.
"It is clear that the current government is only holding itself back from unleashing its rage on the protestors in Delhi because of the international visibility that Delhi has. We ask progressive forces to exert more pressure on the Union and Uttar Pradesh governments to make them stop the atrocities that are being carried out in areas which are less visible to international media," the JCC statement said.
Senior police officers, including Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Anand Mohan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Devender Arya, were also present at the spot.
The Delhi Police had also put up a banner asking people to refrain from staging demonstrations outside the Uttar Pardesh Bhawan as prohibitory orders were in place.