Jantar Mantar turns into ground zero of antiCAA protests in Delhi
INDIA - As the agitation against citizenship law peaked in national capital Delhi, the protesters defied prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 to come out in large numbers on the street. The day began with the protesters assembling near the Red Fort, the site chosen by a group of political parties and other outfits to show their discontent against the Citizenship Amendent Act. The police, which had not given permission for the protests, clamped Section 144 in the area that prohibits assembly of four or more people.
As the number of protesters grew, the police started detaining them. Among those detained was Swarajya Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav. “I have just been detained from Lal Qila. About a thousand protesters already detained. Thousands on the way. Am told we are being taken to Bawana,” Yadav tweeted on Thursday morning.
As the day progressed, the protesters started converging at central Delhi, Jantar Mantar to be precise, by afternoon. Slogans of ‘CAA Se Azaadi and NRC Se Azaadi’ are being raised by the crowd at Jantar Mantar. Protesters are also carrying the national flag. The police have imposed restrictions near Mandi House and Jamia Milia Islamia University, where a violent clampdown took place on Sunday. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) closed 20 metro stations as protests spread. Nearly all the central Delhi stations, including Rajiv Chowk, Barakhamba and ITO, were shut down. Sixteen flights were also delayed due to traffic congestion after the Delhi Police erected barricades at the border with Gurugram. Meanwhile Delhi cops gridlock borders over CAA protests. At least 19 flights were cancelled and 16 more delayed because the airline crews were also stuck in the traffic jams that stretched up to seven kilometres on the national highway from Gurugram. It wasn’t just passengers driving into Delhi from the suburbs who could not reach the airport on time after the police went on an overdrive to block entry into national capital Delhi to prevent mobilisation of protesters against the citizenship law. (Hindustan Times)