Sachin Pal, a 21-year-old student in the Prayagraj lodge where police had allegedly entered on January 25 and beat up students over protests against the RRB-NTPC recruitment process, said that students were terrified. "We were being treated like we were terrorists," he said. Another student, Sattvik Singh, said, "The way the police was beating them [protesters] was barbaric and inhumane."