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Muslim women hit the road in Kanpur to protest crackdown
Kanpur: Thousands of Muslim women unexpectedly spilled out on the road on Monday, asking the police to stop raids and release those detained after Saturday’s violence.
Kanpur: Thousands of Muslim women unexpectedly spilled out on the road on Monday, asking the police to stop raids and release those detained after Saturday’s violence.
Before staging a sit in on the Yatimkhana-Talaq Mahal road, they told the authorities that most of the detained men were from their families but were not part of any protests on Saturday.
The women’s protest around 4 pm rendered the relatively calm situation a little tense, as thousands of people began pouring on the streets in their support.
The women, with their faces covered, said there was a perpetual fear in the localities that the police would conduct raids and would take away their family members without fault.
They said the police planned to use ladders to enter their houses during the raids, which were conducted early on Sunday morning in Dalelpurwa.
The cops, trying to maintain peace in the violence-hit area, went into a tizzy with this unexpected protest, as the women angrily confronted the police officers sent to speak to them.
Circle officer, Anwargunj Saifuddin Beg and SHO Veer Singh, who were the first to respond to the situation returned, as the women wanted to speak to senior authorities.
The women said the people were being targeted since Saturday when the police and anti-Citizenship Act/NRC protestors clashed.
Police have detained nearly 25 people who are being questioned apart from the eight arrested so far.
According to them, all these people were taken away from their houses despite not being involved in the protest. “These are innocent people; they should be released immediately and the raids should stop,” they said.
The Muslim areas reverberated with the calls of “Jaagte Raho” as thousands spent Sunday night on the roads in anticipation of police raids. Rumours flying thick and fast about the raids and police using ladders kept people on the edge.
District magistrate Vijay Vishwas Pant and SSP Kanpur Anant Deo reached Talaq Mahal from a meeting with Muslim clerics at Ghareeb Nawaz Hall and spoke to the protesting women.
The SSP assured them the police would not conduct any raids and the people would be arrested only on the basis of hard evidence.
