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Activist detained ahead of Bilkis Bano march to protest in police station
Sandeep Pandey, general secretary of Socialist Party (India) said the march was not against the government but to apologise to Bilkis Bano for what happened to her
AHMEDABAD: Socialist Party (India) general secretary Sandeep Pandey, who was detained ahead of a nine-day march to express solidarity with Bilkis Bano in Gujarat, on Monday said he will hold a protest in Kankanpur police station near Godhra till they get permission for the foot march.
“The march was not against the government. It was to apologise to Bilkis Bano for whatever happened to her and we wish such heinous acts of crime do not happen in the land of Mahatma Gandhi. We wish to take the debate among people about redefining values where rapists are called ‘sanskari (people with values) Brahmins’,” Pandey said.
Eleven men convicted in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case were released on August 15 after the remission of their jail sentence. Their release brought back the horrors of the incident that occurred on March 3, 2002 during the Gujarat riots. Bano was 21 years old and five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the violence. Seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed.
The Ramon Magsaysay award recipient and other activists were scheduled to participate in a nine-day march from Bilkis Bano’s village Randhikpur in Dahod district under the banner of Hindu-Muslim Ekta Samiti. The protest march was to end at Ahmedabad’s Ajith Mill on October 4.
Late on Sunday evening, Pandey said, a large posse of police personnel turned up at municipal councillor Hanif Kalandar’s house where they were having dinner. “There were many police vehicles with hundreds of policemen and it looked like some raid on a dreaded criminal or mafia. Seven of us were detained on Sunday night but the police freed three including Kalandar perhaps to avoid any untoward incident as a large crowd had gathered in his support,” Pandey said.
Among those released by the police were Noorjehan Diwan, a former member of the Congress party’s women minority cell, and Tanushree Gangopadhyay, a senior journalist.
Police said that Pandey and three others were detained keeping in view the law and order situation in the state. Others who are under detention with Pandey include Kausher Ali Saiyed, Socialist Party (India) Gujarat president, Nitesh Gangaramani Bharatiya of the All India Akhil Bharatiya Parivar Party, advocate Narendra Parmar of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vichar Manch and T Gopal Krishna, general secretary of Socialist Party (India).
Municipal councillor Kalandar said he and his supporters will join Pandey in their protest at the police station.