Students detained at Ramlila Maidan during ‘peace march’
◗ The permission of the march was rejected and duly communicated to the organisers. But there was apprehension of people coming in view the strong arrangements at the Ramlila ground.
As many as 185 students, including 69 women, were detained at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital after they went there to participate in a march against the new citizenship law. The detained students were later released in the evening.
The police said they did not have permission for the march to the Parliament. The Young India Coordination Committee, which comprises members from various student bodies, had given a call for the march on Tuesday.
“We had submitted the application for permission on February 27. We were informed on Monday about the permission being rejected. It was a lastminute intimation,” former JNU Students’ Union president N. Sai Balaji, who was leading the march, said.
A student said that the police was detaining the protesters even if they were assembling in small groups. “We will now proceed to Jantar Mantar,” he said. The police said that a march was proposed by Young India National Coordination Committee along with other organisations like JNU, Jamia Coordination Committee, CPI, and Bheem Army from Ramlila Maidan to Jantar Mantar.
The permission of the march was rejected and duly communicated to the organisers. Despite rejection, there was apprehension of people coming and marching keeping in view the strong arrangements made at the Ramlila ground.
The protesters, who came to Ramlila ground, were detained swiftly and removed from there to Khatu Shyam Stadium, Hari Nagar, and Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana.
Later, student groups who arrived at Jantar Mantar raised anti-government slogans and demanded resignation of home minister Amit Shah over the recent communal riots in northeast Delhi.
Many students carried posters and banners that read: “Peace, Not Riot”, “Scrap Sedition Law”, “Reject anti-poor, Reject anti-Muslim,” “DU for communal harmony”, and “Stop police brutality on anti-CAA protesters”.
A student of Lady Sri Ram College, said: “The rules and regulations are made for us. Our only way of expressing our dissent is through protests. What has happened in northeast Delhi is disheartening”.