Will take strict action, culprit won`t be spared: Home Minister Amit Shah on Jamia firing incident

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday warned that the culprit behind the firing at anti-CAA protesters at Delhi's Jamia locality will not be spared at any cost and directed the police to take strict action in this regard.

The Home Minister took to Twitter and tweeted, ''Today I have spoken to Delhi Police Commissioner on the firing incident (in Jamia area) that has taken place and instructed them to take strict action. The central government will not tolerate any such incident, it will be taken seriously and the culprit will not be spared.''

The tweet from Shah came a few hours after a young man opened fire on students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Delhi's Jamia area earlier on Thursday.

He was identified as a resident of Jewar area of Gautam Buddha Nagar District (Uttar Pradesh). The firing incident was caught on Zee News camera. 

Sharing more details of the incident, DCP Chinmay Biswal said, ''We have earlier warned the protesters that anyone can take advantage of the crowd and untoward incident can take place. The police, which was watching the actions of the youth from the side, instantly took him into custody after he opened fire.''

The man, reportedly a minor, had put up several posts on Facebook making his intentions clear that he would indulge in violence to "end" the Shaheen Bagh protests.

He has written several posts that he would "end the protest" at Shaheen Bagh by January 31. The women and residents of Shaheen Bagh are protesting against the controversial CAA and the NRC for the past one month.

As the students were set to start their march from Jamia Millia Islamia to Rajghat, he took out a country-made .315 bore pistol and opened fire a student sustained an injury in his hand. 

Before opening fire, the youth had shouted, "If you people have to stay in India then you will have to say Vande Mataram, and now I am going to give you your freedom."

Even before firing the pistol, the youth was heard raising slogans of "Jai Shri Ram". While scrolling through his Facebook posts, it was found that the shooter went live a number of times from outside the campus of Jamia and made a number of posts in which he mentioned that he was a lone Hindu in the area and none of the mediapersons covering the protest were Hindus.

In one of his posts, he also asked the people to help his family in his absence and as a last wish, he wrote that his body should be wrapped in the saffron cloth and people should raise the slogan of "Jai Shri Ram" on his last journey.

In one post he also mentioned that he will avenge the death of Chandan Gupta, who died in firing while taking out a bike rally in Uttar Pradesh`s Kasganj two years ago. In a January 28 post, the gunman said that "everyone should take his Facebook profile seriously".

Meanwhile, the student who received a bullet injury has been identified as Shadab Farooq, a student of MA Mass Communication. He was shifted to Holy Family Hospital for treatment.