After the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) released ‘leaked’ footage of police clampdown in Jamia Millia Islamia library, social media was abuzz with speculations that the ‘student’ seen in the viral video holding a ‘stone’ to attack Delhi Police is the same as the one shot at by Jamia shooter.
A WhatsApp message with the image of the Jamia ‘student’ juxtaposed with the anti-CAA protestor who was shot at by Jamia shooter in January this year is being shared with the text that claims that the two men are same.
However, that is not true. The anti-CAA rioter hiding in the library with what looks like stone in his hand is actually a PhD candidate from Jamia Millia Islamia, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat.
As per Jamia Millia Islamia website, Bhat is pursuing PhD in Political Science Department in Social Science faculty under Professor Kadloor Savitri [pdf]. While early media reports suggested that Bhat was holding a stone, later reports suggest it might be a wallet.
A former student at JMI confirmed to OpIndia that the Jamia ‘student’ with stone-like object in his hand taking shelter in Jamia library is indeed Mohammad Ashraf Bhat. However, since the video was leaked, to avoid getting identified, he has reportedly deactivated his social media profiles and even got a hair cut.
The person in the other picture is the anti-CAA protestor at Jamia Millia Islamia, Shadab Najar. While Facebook profile of Najar showed how he regularly degraded the Indian Army, very little is currently known on Bhat.
On Saturday late night, JCC released heavily edited video of CCTV footage from inside the Jamia Millia Islamia library to claim that the Delhi Police unleashed atrocities on the ‘students’ studying peacefully inside the library. However, a longer version of the video showed ‘students’ rushing inside the library with objects which look like stones in their hands even as some ‘students’ put handkerchieves around their face to hide their identities. Later on Sunday, more videos emerged where it can be clearly seen that a student with a stone-like object in his hand (now identified as Mohammad Ashraf Bhat) is urging ‘students’ from outside to enter the library and thereby, providing shelter to other students who are entering the library from outside where violence had ensued between the ‘students’ and the Police. The new video appears to depict events that occurred prior to police action in the library.
JCC is the organising body which works with Jamia students to organise anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh and Khureji amongst other places
