Citizen Amendment Bill protests: The protesters standing up to police

The video is shocking: a group of unarmed young women trying to defend their friend from a group of Indian police officers in riot gear wielding bamboo poles.

Just moments earlier, the officers had dragged the man out of a house, repeatedly lifting their sticks high above their heads before bringing them down with as much force as possible.

And yet the young women seemed unafraid as they formed a human shield against the onslaught.

"We just wanted to protect our friend," Ladeeda Farzana told BBC Hindi's Dilnawaz Pasha.

Footage of the confrontation is less than a minute in length, but it captured the attention of a nation being swept by protests and allegations of police brutality following the ing of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) which some say is anti-Muslim, and others say will prompt large-scale migration.

The bill, which provides citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities escaping persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, has sent thousands of people out in the streets.

The protests in the capital Delhi on Sunday, however, descended into clashes with police. At least 50 people - both officers and protesters - ended up in hospital.

Ladeeda and her friends were among those protesting at Delhi's Jamia Milia University on Sunday when Shaheen Abdullah was dragged out of a house where he said they had been hiding.

On Monday, his face was covered in cuts. And yet, he remained defiant and determined to continue to protest against the bill.

"It is not [and the video], it is about the bill that will come," he told BBC Hindi. "It is not going to happen to me and those girls, it is going to happen to every Muslim in this country.

"Please be aware, come out, be together and fight against this. It is our duty," Ladeeda, 22, added. "If we will not talk, then who will talk":[]}