Lucknow: Silent protests are slowly turning into injustice battlegrounds with Yogi Adityanath government trying to intimidate protestors.
According to sources, a Samajwadi Party student leader has been arrested at the Ghanta Ghar when the police personnel pounced over the group singing Sare Jaha se Acha, the Telegraph reported.
“Some 20 cops, including about five policewomen, barged into the courtyard, which we had demarcated with a rope from three sides, around (Saturday) noon and pounced on Pooja Shukla and two middle-aged women without provocation. They hurled the foulest abuses against us,” one of the protesting women said.
“We were singing Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram and Sare Jahan Se Achchha and the policemen said it could create a law-and-order problem. The male and female cops beat the three women with batons and rifle butts. Then they dragged the trio to a van and whisked them away. Two men who tried to save the women were also thrashed, pushed into the van and taken away.”
Another protestor who wished not to be named said: “Later, the police freed the two other women but we don’t know about the two men. We have heard they have sent Pooja to jail.”
According to the protestors, cops are visiting their homes and pressuring their families to persuade them to leave the dharna spot.
Vikas Chandra Tripathi, additional deputy commissioner of police (Lucknow West), refuted the police abuse claims, and confirmed that Pooja, a student in her 20s, had been arrested for incitement to violence and breach of peace and also sent to 14 days’ jail custody.
“The activist was arrested because she was misleading the women and instigating them to take the law into their own hands,” the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police said.
The officer refused to reveal any details regarding other men and women protestors arrests. But a PTI report quoted Thakurganj station house officer Pramod Mishra as saying “seven male volunteers” too had been arrested and 100 women booked for violating a ban on assemblies.
Pooja, national vice-president of the Samajwadi Kshatra Sabha, the Samajwadi student arm told the news source on Friday that the police and administration officials had been pressuring her to stay away from the protest.
Another police official said Pooja’s arrest was meant as a warning to the protesters not to disturb law and order on Republic Day. But the women saw it differently.
“The government is getting restless. They had thought we wouldn’t be able to sustain our protest even for a week but now they have realised that we are stronger and more patient than them,” Samaiya said.
Another woman said: “The weak feels insecure and becomes aggressive every now and then. Our peaceful protest has made the government jittery and they may use more force against us.”
The student also added: “I have joined the protest not because of my association with a political party. Most secular-minded women are agitated at the way the BJP governments are trying to ostracise Muslims in their own country.
“A large number of Hindu women have been participating in the protest in solidarity with Muslim women. We will not bow before the Adityanath government.”
AMU crackdown
In another similar event, three Aligarh Muslim University students, including students’ union leader Faizul Hasan, have been booked for allegedly making “anti-national” statements.
“Some people had advised me to apologize although I didn’t make any anti-national statement. All I want to say is that I’m not V.D. Savarkar that I would apologise,” Hasan told reporters.
Amit Kumar, a police inspector has claimed the police had evidence showing some AMU students making “anti-national” statements.