New Delhi: Petrol was taken out of two-wheelers parked on the roadside and used to set fire to buses filled with passengers, an eyewitness of this evening’s violence in Delhi. The hour-long pitched battle outside a posh colony between the police and a mob was the culmination of a protest march against the new citizenship law.
By the end of it, three buses were set ablaze, a fire tender was damaged and two firemen were injured and the police had used batons and tear gas on the mob.
The Jamia students have distanced themselves from the violence and senior officers of the Delhi police admitted that local thugs had hijacked the march, setting vehicles ablaze and throwing stones at policemen when they tried to stop them from marching to Jantar Mantar.
“The men took out petrol from two-wheelers and set fire to a bus, which still had passengers inside,” Ravi, a man who works as a domestic help in the area. “There was much panic. A young woman was sobbing loudly,” he said.
Asked how many men were involved, he said 15 to 20. When the police arrived, they scattered. “One of them threw a stone at a policeman. I saw him bleeding from the head,” he added.
The police are yet to give any account of the injured, though various claims of injuries are doing the rounds of social media. It is not known yet is any case has been filed.
Some of the students have been detained by the police. The students claimed that the police later entered the campus and rounded up the students from the library.
