HYDERABAD: Students from various educational institutions in the city gathered in front of the Arts College in Osmania University on Monday evening to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The protest was organised by around 20 student organizations.
Apart from Central and State varsities that included Osmania University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, University of Hyderabad, English and Foreign Languages University, PS Telugu University, NALSAR, students from many governments and private colleges in the city also participated in the protest. The same day, OU also witnessed a rally conducted by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in support of the CAA.
Students from the educational institutions reached the campus to participate in both the protests, despite various restrictions by the police and university security to allow only those with the university’s ID cards to enter the campus. All entry and exit points of the campus were blocked and vehicular movement through the university was diverted hours before the scheduled meeting. Over 300 police personnel were deployed in and around the campus to avoid any untoward incident.
The protest against CAA was addressed by the two students from Jamia Millia Islamia, Ladeeda Farzana and Ayesha Renna, who became the face of the student protests after a video them standing up to police brutality went viral. Terming the CAA xenophobic, Renna called for nationwide protests against the newly-enacted statuette as a struggle against fascism.
Meanwhile, the ruling TRS party’s students wing, Telangana Rashtra Samithi Vidyarthi (TRSV) also held a protest at Charminar extending solidarity to the Muslim community and against the CAA. The Charminar police detained 12 TRSV cadre for staging a protest and later released them.
ABVP takes out rally on same day
Earlier in the day, the ABVP took out a rally in the campus and raised pro-CAA slogans. “People are protesting as they lack awareness regarding the newly-enacted CAA and it is going in the wrong direction. With the Act, there will not be any problem for Muslims but only to illegal immigrants like Rohingyas” said Raghavendar, an ABVP leader.
Owaisi to participate in rallies across country
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi announced he will participate in protest rallies called by the United Muslim Action Committee across Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states of the country. Protest meetings will be organised this week, on Tuesday at the Zilla Parishad ground in Mahaboobnagar, on December 27 at Eidgah Ground in Nizamabad, and on December 29 in Kishangunj, Bihar. The protest meetings and rallies will also be attended by religious scholars and intellectuals