A man wielding a gun opened fire at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest outside the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi on Thursday, injuring a student.
The Indian Express reported that the injured student was moved to the Holy Family Hospital, close to the spot where the incident took place.
The man reportedly shouted, “Yeh lo aazadi (here’s your freedom)... Delhi police zindabad... Hindustan zindabad.”
The man has now been identified as a minor, according to several news reports.
Jamia student Aamna Asif told NDTV, “We were standing near the barricades when suddenly this outsider, whom none of us recognised, tried to disturb the peace of the march. He marches forward with a revolver in his hand. We were all trying to stop him and calm him down. The policemen were standing there. We tried to approach them to stop that guy. But they just kept standing there simply. When we tried to take the revolver from his hand, he shot one of our friends.”
The man, ANI reported, was taken into custody and was being questioned by the police.
Students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University were planning to march to Rajghat on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
According to tweets from independent journalist Ahmer Khan, the injured student has been identified as Shahdab.
The incident comes a few days after BJP leader and Union minister Anurag Thakur, now banned from campaigning for 72 hours, raised incendiary slogans at a poll rally in Delhi. When questioned, he tried to blame the people at the rally.
At the rally, Thakur, the minister of state for finance, shouted “desh ke gaddaron ko” to which the crowd responded, “goli maro saalon ko” (shoot down the traitors).
A day later, BJP MP Parvesh Verma also tried to whip up hate against the peaceful protests at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, saying “they’ll” enter homes and rape “sisters and daughters” unless BJP was voted to power in the upcoming assembly election.
BJP leaders including Kapil Mishra (the BJP’s candidate from Model Town) have been conducting their campaign on communal lines, trying to polarise voters on religious lines.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to removed the name of the shooter as several news reports say he is a minor. His photo has also been blurred.