Updated

Scenes of protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week have spread across the country, with students and teachers from cities including Bangalore, Jaipur and Chennai joining demands for the release of a student leader arrested on sedition charges.

The demands for the student's freedom in the Indian capital have been met by mobs of Hindu nationalists, including many lawyers, attacking students and accusing them of being anti-Indian.

On Thursday, students in at least 10 Indian cities marched through the streets and denounced the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, the student union president at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Many were outraged by nationally televised scenes of Kumar being kicked and punched while he was escorted to a court hearing Wednesday, renewing allegations of intolerance by the country's Hindu nationalist governing party.