A group of women protesting against the CAA at the Ghantaghar Park in Hussainabad area of Lucknow on Sunday alleged policemen took away their blankets and food stuff. However, police rejected the allegations.
On the lines of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, the women along with children have been squatting near the Clock Tower (Ghantaghar) in Lucknow’s Old City since Friday night, protesting against the CAA and NRC.
The women protesters alleged that blankets provided to them by some organisations were taken away by the police. Rejecting the allegation, the Lucknow Police said, “During the illegal protest at Lucknow’s Ghantaghar Park (Clock Tower), some people tried to make a “gheraa” (cordon) using ropes and sticks, and also tried to put sheets. They were not allowed to do so. Some organisations were distributing blankets on the park premises as a result of which people living in the vicinity and not part of the protests were coming to take the blankets.”
“Police removed those persons and organisations distributing blankets there, and action is being initiated against them,” the Lucknow police said, and urged people not to spread rumours. Lucknow’s police commissioner Sujeet Pandey also dismissed the allegations levelled by the protesters.
However, a 27-second video clip emerged on social media which purportedly shows a policeman carrying blankets and sheets in a plastic bag and later putting them in police jeeps. A woman is seen in the video shouting at a policeman and calling him “thief”, but police personnel did not respond to it.
The protest at Lucknow’s Ghantaghar started on Friday night and later several others from different parts of the city joined it as the night advanced.
The BJP said the protest by the women was “sponsored by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party”.
The protest by women at the national Capital’s Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and NRC has been going on for over a month now. Besides Delhi, protests have unfolded in several parts of the country over the new citizenship law since it was passed on December 11 and have led to clashes at several places, including Uttar Pradesh.
According to the amended citizenship law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
