A teacher, an unemployed graduate, a clothing shop owner, a student, shop worker, a social worker, and many more.Several protesters who had spent Monday night in hospital after being injured in the police crackdown on the CJP-led march to Parliament made their way back to the protest site at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday. Some walked with a limp, others with fresh bandages, while volunteers guided them towards a smaller stage that had been turned into a makeshift relief area.Ajit Singh, 30, a teacher who coaches B.Ed students and lives in Paschim Vihar, said he headed back to the protest site from Lady Hardinge Hospital at 11 am. “I had been fasting for two-three days before joining the march,” he said.Singh said he was walking on Parliament Street when the police moved in. “We told them we hadn’t eaten and couldn’t run. We asked them to spare us. But I was hit with a lathi first on my head, then my hands. I saw my friend Hammad being kicked by a man in plainclothes carrying a lathi. He collapsed,” he said.Also Read | 'Will keep coming back': CJP protester returns to Jantar Mantar from hospitalTear gas left him unable to see clearly for nearly six hours, Singh said. He was treated for injuries to his head, left hand and legs in the orthopaedics wing of Lady Hardinge Hospital. “I joined the protest because I am a teacher, and I have to show my face to my students. The injustice done to them is intolerable,” he said.Despite leaving the hospital only hours earlier, Singh said he felt compelled to return. “Although the government is unresponsive, we shall continue to fight for the students,” he said.Singh’s friend Hammad (30) was back at Jantar Mantar by 3 pm — just nine hours after the social worker from Tonk in Rajasthan had walked out of Lady Hardinge Hospital, where he had spent the night after being injured on his head and hand.Story continues below this adAlso Read | After CJP protests, India is angry. Why are we still asking the wrong questions?“I want the police officers who hit women protesters to be detained…I am weak in body but not in resolve,” said Hammad, an LLB dropout who says he spent the past 23 days at the protest site.Recalling the crackdown, Hammad said he had been sitting on the kerb with around 25 protesters near the Parliament Street police station barricades. “There were five men in uniform and about 10 in civilian clothes. They started hitting me with lathis. I fell to the ground. ‘Get up from here’, they told me,” he said.A few friends carried him to a nearby medical camp, but he got caught up in the lathi charge when police began clearing the area, he said. “I fell unconscious for about half-an-hour after they brought me to the tent. Later, I lay outside the police booth near Jantar Mantar for nearly two hours before they took me to the hospital,” he said.Sitting cross-legged in front of the stage at Jantar Mantar, 25-year-old Ritik Ghosle’s right foot still bore scars of the previous day’s police action. The clothing shop owner from Pune said he flew to Delhi to join the protest three days ago and went to RML Hospital after being injured on Monday.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Hanumankind attends CJP's Jantar Mantar protest as Indian rap community backs NEET stir“I studied only till Class 10, but I want the children of our country to have a better future than me,” he said, adding that he returned to the protest site because he “didn’t want to leave the movement halfway”.Nearby sat John (18), a student with a bandage wrapped around his head after being struck with a lathi while leaving Jantar Mantar on Monday. “If I don’t fight today, I have no other option but to leave the country and study abroad,” he said.Narendra (22), who works at a general store in Haryana, suffered injuries on the back of his knee and hands in the lathi charge while marching on Parliament Street. He was discharged from Lady Hardinge Hospital at 9 am and returned directly to Jantar Mantar.“I came because of the suicides (related to paper leaks) and for our future generations,” he said. “I have not studied beyond Class 10, but I can see that the education system is in shambles. Many schools in Haryana don’t even have toilets for girl students.”Story continues below this adNCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena UBT’s Uddhav Thackeray were among Opposition leaders who visited the Jantar Mantar protest venue Tuesday.Also Read | How Modi faces his first broad-based protest ever — not one by specific interest groupsWalking with difficulty, Narendra said he would remain at the protest — until “Dharmendra Pradhan resigns”.Karan, a graduate from Rajasthan, said he had been discharged from Lady Hardinge Hospital in the morning. Unemployed for the past three years, the 24-year-old said he had attempted the Delhi Police and Rajasthan Police constable recruitment exams without success. He said he joined the protest because he was “fed up with the paper leaks”.On Monday, Karan said, he was sitting in a park near Jantar Mantar with his younger brother and a few women protesters when, according to him, “a bunch of men in plainclothes covering their faces, carrying lathis, along with policemen, surrounded us and started beating us on the head and legs”.Story continues below this adMust Read | How Rahul Gandhi pulled off his secret protest plan at PM’s residence“Even the women were not spared. They were bleeding but the blows did not stop,” he said.Karan said he suffered injuries to his head, abdomen and legs and was taken to Lady Hardinge Hospital by his brother. He got discharged on Tuesday morning before going to a private clinic because the “X-rays were not done promptly”.He needs to get back home to prepare for “another recruitment exam next week”. “But I will take part in the protest here tomorrow, too,” he said.