The student of Jamia Millia Islamia University, who was injured in after a gunman fired during a protest against he Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, has said that the Delhi Police was not to be blamed alone for the incident.
“Delhi police alone is not to be blamed. Jamia administration and VC too should be blamed for what happened yesterday. Had they taken action against the police brutality in the earlier events, this might not have been happened,” Shadab Farooq said in a Facebook post.
The 22-year-old also dubbed the incident “a result of hyper nationalism”. “If you want to make it a protest, make it one. Raise black flags, raise red flags,” he stated.
Narrating the sequence of events, Farooq, a mass communication student, stated on Facebook that the Jamia Coordination Committee had called for a Gandhi March from the university to the Rajghat on January 30.
“I was about to join the protest, waiting for the crowd to march forward when I saw a random person holding a pistol in his hands walking towards Holy Family (Hospital). I saw some of my friends standing there, I immediately ran towards him to calm him down,” he stated in the post.
“People were asking the police to stop him. They were continuously shouting that he’s holding a pistol but the police didn’t listen. Instead, they kept recording videos. I kept saying put the gun down, I said it twice. He shot me on my left forearm when I said it for the third time,” he added.
Farooq said what he did wasn’t an act of heroism as he did what he felt was right.
“I am calling for an action because I am hurt. If the administration still doesn’t take action on it and if it fails to reach out to its students, then tomorrow there will be another Shadab standing in front of a bullet while the police keep their hands in their pockets and record videos,” he said.
“And I’ll be back to college real soon. The fight is long, but we will fight. We will win,” he added.
A 17-year-old fired at the crowd outside Jamia Millia Islamia last week, injuring Farooq. He suffered a bullet injury in his left arm. The attacker from Jewar in Greater Noida was sent to a 28-day protective custody by a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Friday.
Farooq belongs to Jammu’s Bhaderwah area and joined the university four years ago to pursue BA in English literature. He was also a member of Jamia’s theatre group. Danish Iqbal, a professor at Farooq’s centre, said he is not associated with any political group on campus.