Protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh were removed and some detained on Tuesday, more than 100 days after they started the agitation, amid a lockdown in the national capital over the coronavirus outbreak.
Police said they have taken all the tents and billboards agitators had put up in Shaheen Bagh, which has been placed under heavy security.
“Shaheen Bagh has been cleared. We requested them to vacate the road. They continued to ignore the request,” RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police Southeast Delhi, said.
“As of now six women and three men have been detained,” Meena said.
Prakash Devi, one of the women protesters, said the police came on Monday night and asked them to clear the venue.
“At around 3am, there was a heavy mobilisation of police personnel. They locked some of the lanes. At around 5:30-6am, police came and forcibly evicted us,” Prakash Devi, one of the women protesters, said.
“We were protesting in shifts. I was not protesting there when police came. Police have also taken some women and have detained them,” she said.
The national capital has been under lockdown since Monday but a handful of women protesters continued to sit at the agitation site blocking Road No 13 A in south-east Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
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All except five of the protesters had withdrawn from the site on Sunday but had left behind their slippers to “lend solidarity to the fight against Covid-19 disease” and as a symbolic gesture of their agitation as well.
Protesters at Shaheen Bagh were being requested by different sections to call off the agitation due to the growing threat over Sars-Cov-2.
Many had cited that they were waiting for a Supreme Court hearing in the matter, which was scheduled to take place on Monday. However, due to the partial shutdown of the top court, no hearing was held on Monday.
Delhi, which has reported 30 cases of Covid-19 so far, have intensified the already unprecedented restrictions meant to tackle the coronavirus disease outbreak. Out of the 30 patients, one is a foreigner, five have been cured and one died.
Delhi Police have said people entering Delhi from any of its borders will require special “curfew passes”.
The move was among several issued by police commissioner SN Shrivastava, who said the enforcement of prohibitory order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not “up to the mark” on the first day of the nine-day isolation of the city.
Section 144 prohibits the assembly of four or more persons at one location.
People not employed in essential services, which are exempted from the lockdown, tried to cross the borders or move around the city on Monday. At the borders, people were stopped and asked to return home.