Scores of protesters agitating at the iconic Gateway of India since Monday night against the violence at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were on Tuesday morning evicted by the police and relocated to Azad Maidan.
DCP (Zone 1) Sangramsingh Nishandar said that the protesters were evicted as roads were getting blocked causing inconvenience to Mumbai residents and tourists.
The officer said that the demonstrators were relocated to Azad Maidan near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus after several appeals.
“As the demonstration was posing problems for tourists and in traffic movement, we requested the protesters to move to Azad Maidan. But some groups did not listen despite our repeated request, so we relocated them to the Azad Maidan,” the DCP said.
The cops had to physically drag away protesters, mostly students, from the popular tourist site that became the epicentre of the “Occupy Gateway” protest.
Meanwhile, a poster reading, ‘Free Kashmir’ was seen at Gateway of India during the protest.
DCP Nishandar said that the city police has taken “serious cognizance” of the ‘Free Kashmir’ poster while adding that an investigation has been initiated into the same.
Meanwhile, another protest was held at Carter Road against the January 5 violence at JNU, which was also attended by celebrities like Anurag Kashyap, Anubhav Sinha, Tapsee Pannu, Zoya Akhtar, Diya Mirza, and Rahul Bose.
Earlier, hundreds of people, including students, women and senior citizens – who assembled at the iconic Gateway of India since Sunday midnight – demanded action against those behind the JNU violence and resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Songs like ‘Hum dekhenge’, ‘Hum honge kamyab’ and ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna’ rent the air as students of IIT Bombay, TISS, and members of students’ organisations, including the ASFI, raised slogans against Modi and Shah.
Unprecedented violence broke out in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi on Sunday night as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls, and teachers inside the campus with wooden and metal rods, injuring at least 34 people.
The mob was reportedly seen carrying hammers, iron rods, sledgehammers and stones in videos and photographs that emerged out of the JNU campus.
According to intelligence reports and students, the genesis of the clashes began in the confrontation between students seeking to stall the semester registration process as part of their agitation against the hostel fees hike and groups opposing them. Members of the earlier group were allegedly behind the disruption of the varsity’s Wifi network late on Friday.