New Delhi: Members of the Left-affiliated Students' Federation of India (SFI) were detained on Tuesday while organising a protest and hunger strike to demand the reopening of the Delhi University campus.
 
Police said the protesting SFI members, detained at the Maurice Nagar police station, were later released.
    
The SFI claimed in a statement that the protest was held at the Faculty of Arts where the Delhi Police put "over 50 activists including many women comrades under forceful detention".
    
"The students had gathered for a peaceful form of resistance, observing a 48 hour hunger strike. This is a display of blatant violation of our democratic rights to occupy our campus spaces," it added.
    
"The government has deployed state machineries to suppress students who are demanding education and access to their colleges. We should see this in the context of the larger attack on public education system and implementation of NEP. The regime recognizes the threat posed by students who are a strong threat to their fascist policies and is violently clamping down on them," president of SFI Delhi Sumit Kataria said.
    
A senior police officer said around 35 people had gathered to stage a protest. They were detained and later released, the officer said.