Hundreds of people staged protests in Mumbai and Pune since late Sunday night, shaken by the attacks in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in Delhi late on Sunday, condemning the manner in which students and teachers were targeted.

The impromptu protests started from midnight and continued till morning at the Gateway of India, near the IIT-Bombay campus in Powai in Mumbai. And in Pune, protests occured in the FTII Campus.

Protesters were carrying the Tricolour, candles, handwritten banners and posters expressing solidarity with the JNU students and raised slogans demanding action against those involved in the attack.

Many leaders from the ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi’s slammed the violence against the JNU students-teachers and demanded stringent action against the perpetrators, on Monday.

Terming it as “a planned attack”, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar said the students and professors were subjected to a cowardly attack.

“I strongly condemn this undemocratic act of vandalism and violence. Use of violent means to suppress democratic values and thought will never succeed,” Pawar said.

State Congress and Revenue Minister President Balasaheb Thorat strongly flayed the “brutal violence unleashed by the goons of ABVP” inside the JNU.

“This is sheer hooliganism, they are ransacking property and harming people. I demand that the attackers should be brought to book immediately,” Thorat said.

Shiv Sena leader and Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray said that the violence and brutality faced by students while protesting is worrisome.

“Be it Jamia, JNU, students mustn’t face brutal force. Let them be! These goons must face action. They must be brought to time-bound and swift justice,” Aditya Thackeray demanded.

More protests are planned during the day on Monday, said an activist PS Prasad, at the University of Mumbai and at the Hutatma Chowk in south Mumbai, besides other colleges and universities, by student organisations and NGOs.

Unprecedented violence was witnessed in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls, and teachers inside the campus with wooden and metal rods, injuring many.

At least 34 people, including JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh — who was reportedly hit over the eye with an iron rod — were injured as chaos reigned on the campus for nearly two hours.

The Delhi Police has reportedly identified some of the masked assailants and a complaint has been filed.

According to intelligence reports and students, the genesis of the clashes began in the confrontation between students seeking to stall the semester registration process as part of their agitation against the hostel fees hike and groups opposing them. Members of the earlier group were allegedly behind the disruption of the varsity’s Wifi network late on Friday.