Hyderabad varsity condemns police 'raids' at Jamia

Hyderabad, Aug 16: The Joint Action Committee of students' groups at University of Hyderabad ON Tuesday condemned police 'raids' at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia University on the eve of Independence Day celebrations.

The group of Social Justice, an umbrella grouping of various students' organisations, said it stands in solidarity with the students of Jamia "to resist and destroy the ground which gives legitimacy to the criminalization and oppression of minorities, and to safeguard the autonomy of academic spaces at all costs."

"Throughout its history, Jamia has been the target of communal profiling and repression, such as in the aftermath of the Batla House encounter in 2008, or the brutal attack on April 9, 2000, when students were assaulted by the Delhi police," the JAC said in a statement.

"This comes at a time when we are already witnessing the heavy militarisation and policing of all academic spaces across the country in an attempt to stifle any kind of dissent, and to stop any critical questions from being raised," it added.

The JAC noted that the way university administrations in JNU, HCU, Jadavpur and other universities gave a free hand to the police to exercise brutality on the students, points clearly to the fact that the administrations work "hand in glove with the police and the state to stifle and silence, rather than protect the rights of the university community and resist the attack on the universities' autonomy."

IANS