56-yr-old dies in Kolkata’s Shaheen Bagh, BJP leader asks if ‘she’s Bangladeshi or Indian’

“Sameeda Khatun was very active and had been demonstrating over the past 15 days almost. She used to come every day around 3 pm and leave for home around 1 am,” said Asmat Jameel, one of the organisers of the demonstration.

A 56-year-old woman protester died at Park Circus Maidan in south Kolkata on Saturday, where dozens of women and children have been staging a demonstration against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) over the past 26 days, along the lines of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.

Students and homemakers sitting on an agitation against the CAA, NRC and attacks on university campuses such as JNU, JMI students at Park Circus Maidan in Kolkata, West Bengal. (Photo: Samir Jana/ Hindustan Times)

“Sameeda Khatun was very active and had been demonstrating for over the past 15 days almost. She used to come every day around 3 pm and leave for home around 1 am,” said Asmat Jameel, one of the organisers of the demonstration at Park Circus Maidan — a prominent landmark in the city with a Muslim neighbourhood.

According to the doctors, Khatun died of cardiac failure. She fell ill at night and was rushed to a private hospital. Doctors referred her to a state-run hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival.

BJP leader questions nationality

Bharatiya Janata Party’s state general secretary Sayantan Basu, triggered a controversy saying: “First we need to check whether she was a Bangladeshi or an Indian citizen.”

Following her death, on Sunday morning, other protesters on the stir switched off the loudspeakers to observe silence to pay condolence.

“Khatun was a patient of high blood pressure and sugar. Her family never wanted her to be here so long every day. But she kept saying that the fight was much bigger than her own health,” said Rafey Siddiqui, another organiser.