4.2.20

Shaheen Bagh : Protest vs. Protest

A group of locals on Sunday staged a demonstration near the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act  protest site in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, demanding the removal of barricades from the road connecting Noida with Kalindi Kunj.

The protesters demanded that the people, who have been sitting on dharna there for over a month to protest against CAA, should clear the stretch as the commuters are facing difficulties, police said.

Senior officers, including joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Srivastava and deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal, were at the spot monitoring the situation to ensure no untoward incident took place.

The officers were trying to negotiate with the protesters and asking them to maintain peace.

The protesters, including women, raised slogans like “Jai Shree Ram”, “Vande Mataram” and “Khali Karao Shaheen Bagh wallo ko”.

“We want the roads to be cleared. They (anti-CAA protesters) have been sitting on protest for 50 days now. It has been causing inconvenience to us. Our children have not been able to go to school because the roads are blocked,” said Rekha Devi, a resident of Jasola.

Around 52 people have been detained. They will be released shortly, police said.

Deepak Patel, a resident of Jasola, said he somehow managed to go to work after crossing the area.

“With heavy barricading, police don’t allow us to enter the protest site where women have been sitting for over a month. I somehow managed to go to work crossing the area. But since yesterday, there has been strict checking and we were not allowed to pass through the stretch without showing an identity card,” Patel said.

Rekha Khanna, another protester, said they want the road to be cleared at the earliest. “It’s been 50 days now. My husband works in Noida and my children also go to school through the same route. We want the road to be cleared at the earliest. We only came here to protest for a day and we are being asked to disperse from here. But those who are protesting at Shaheen Bagh are not even asked to vacate. At least they should open one side of the road.” Khanna added.

Meanwhile, Hindutva outfit, Hindu Sena, on Sunday, withdrew the call for its supporters to gather at 11 am yesterday and “clear off the Shaheen Bagh protests”. In a press release, the group’s head, Vishnu Gupta, said they have taken the decision to call off the event “after meeting and discussing the law and order situation with South-East DCP Chinmoy Biswal and other senior officers of Delhi Police to maintain peace in the area.”

Shooter in 2-day police custody

A Delhi court sent Kapil Gujjar, arrested for firing in the air at southeast Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area during a protest against CAA, to a two-day police custody on Sunday.

Kapil was produced before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Vijeta Singh Rawat.

On Saturday, he had fired two rounds in the air at Shaheen Bagh, where anti-CAA protests are being held for over a month now.

After being overpowered by police personnel, Kapil had chanted “Jai Shree Ram” and said, “hamare desh me aur kisi ki nahi chalegi, sirf Hinduon ki chalegi (only Hindus shall have a say in our country, no one else),” as he was taken into custody by the Delhi Police.

This was the second such incident reported from Shaheen Bagh in a span of three days. A man had fired from a pistol on a group of anti-CAA protesters in the area on Thursday, injuring a student of the Jamia Millia Islamia University.

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