Hyderabad: Despite some trouble from the authorities, the session at Lamakaan with the two brave Jamia Millia Islamia girl students who stood up to Delhi police’s high-handedness took place in peace.
Scheduled to start at 11-00 am at the city’s prominent cultural space, the two alleys which lead to the venue from the Banjara Hills main road and back alley were suddenly barricaded. Upon arriving in a rickshaw, Hyderabad Central University PhD student Zamir Bhat saw a huge police bus and officers as well.
“They weren’t letting me through and it seemed like the event would either be postponed or even cancelled,” he says. Even though police personnel at Lamakaan tried to prevent the talk from happening, Lamakaan personnel stood their ground.
One attendee, renowned Economist Amirullah Khan’s call to the Director General of Police ensured that the event went through even though police still didn’t let people enter the venue easily.
Although when the students turned activists, Ladeeda and Ayesha, addressed a crowd at Osmania University yesterday, the police were being selective with who they were letting in.
Mohammed Abdul Nayeem, Lamakaan’s event manager, states “Some fringe groups who cause trouble on social media attacked us on the event’s Facebook page hurling abuses at the girls and then tagging Hyderabad City in a post about the event.”
Luckily the Q&A session following short speeches by Ayesha and Ladeeda went off without a hitch. “From being obstructers, due to pressure from the powers that be, the police then guarded the venue as law enforcement officials ought to,” a person who attended the event said.
Earlier this year, a talk with Ram Punyani at Lamakaan faced the prospect of cancellation courtesy these fringe elements and authorities. However, the cultural space’s didn’t cave into their obstructive methods.