Anti-CAA protests: Mohd Zeeshan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Huma Qureshi join in to support Jamia students

Doubling down attack on the police crackdown inside Jamia Millia Islamia University, more voices from the Indian film industry on Tuesday backed the students against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Actors Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Parineeti Chopra, Sidharth Malhotra, veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar and filmmakers Vishal Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap among others expressed solidarity with the youth over Sunday's violence inside the campus.

Thousands of students across India took to the streets demanding a probe into the use of teargas inside the Jamia library as well as police entering the campus without permission from university authorities on Sunday. Jamia turned into a war zone on Sunday as police entered the campus and used force to quell student protests against the Act.

Ayyub, who is in the capital, expressed solidarity with Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University students and urged everyone to stand united against the contentious Act. Targeting the administration, the "Article 15" actor said the government had nothing to show in the name of work so they are creating new villains every day.

"Today they are making villains out of Muslims. Even if you do remove them, do you think they will not make any new villains? They will keep making more villains... They have nothing to show. People are bored on Pakistan, Kashmir. They are making a fool of you for their entertainment. Don’t get fooled, stand united," he said at a gathering in Press Club in New Delhi. Ayyub, who said his father is a Muslim and his mother is a Hindu, also asked, "How can they divide us in the name of religion?"

In response to a news video alleging Jamia students resorted to violence on Sunday, Akhtar said the police cannot enter the campus without the permission of the varsity authorities. "By entering the Jamia campus without permission, police has created a precedence that is a threat to every university," Akhtar tweeted on Monday.

Bhardwaj tweeted, "My heart pains for the students of Jamia. Don't be silent, don't be violent." Director Anurag Kashyap, who had returned to Twitter to criticise the government on its handling of student protests, on Tuesday appealed for peace in light of violent protests in Delhi's Seelampur area.

"Protests must be kept peaceful... Neither state nor the people should attack or get violent or the point of protest is lost," he wrote. Parineeti called the crackdown by the police on students "barbaric".

"If this is what’s gonna happen everytime a citizen expresses their view, forget #CAB, we should pass a bill and not call our country a democracy anymore! Beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind?" she asked. Sidharth said his heart goes out to all the students back home in Delhi.

"In a democracy like ours, it's sad to see violence against citizens for voicing their opinion through peaceful protests. There should be no place for violence of any form & intent in our country. I strongly condemn this act," he tweeted. Director Alankrita Shrivastava said nothing can justify what has happened to the students.

"The broken legs, the lost eye, the assaults in the darkness, the barbaric beating up of the innocent, the vandalising of a space of learning, the invasion of the student hostels. History will remember," she wrote on the microblogging site. Actors Abhay Deol and Pulkit Samrat also offered support to the students.

"Students are our asset and we should stand by them. I hope sense prevails soon, the country cannot go to war with itself! As the old adage goes, you cannot fight fire with fire," Deol wrote on Instagram. "BARBARIC! UNDEMOCRATIC! UNSECULAR! That’s what we are turning into! Not the India I was born in! #UnityIsOurReligion #IStandWithJamiaMilliaStudents," tweeted Samrat.

Other members of film fraternity such as actors Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi, director Hansal Mehta, also reacted on the protests against the Act. RDS BK

BK