The Jamia Milia Islamia Saturday postponed all the exams that were supposed to be held today due to the tense situation over the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This comes a day after the students planned to boycott exams, as part of what they are calling a “university lockdown”. New dates will be announced soon.
“All semester exams to be held today in Jamia postponed,” said the university’s Public Relations Officer. Winter vacation will commence from December 16 till January 5, 2020, and the university will open on January 6, 2020, said a communique from the University.
On Friday, the protest turned violent after the students were stopped by police, leading to stone-pelting by a section of protesters and lathicharge by police personnel, who also used teargas shells. While the protest initially appeared to have ended by evening, students did not move away from the streets.
By 7 pm, the large mass of students and locals had split into smaller groups who kept sloganeering at different places on the main road outside the campus.
Read | In Delhi, Jamia protest over Citizenship law turns violent, police use teargas
Students from the engineering faculty at the university, who were appearing for an examination between 2 pm and 5 pm, claimed teargas has entered their classroom. Saif Ullah Khan, 21, a BTech student, said, “We were tearing up. Plus it was so loud outside that we couldn’t focus.” A faculty member also claimed teargas had entered the campus.
The faculty was also holding viva examinations for another batch of students, many of whom couldn’t make it to the venue on time because of the violence and barricading outside.