Anti-CAA stir: UP Police confiscates food items, blankets from protesting women at Lucknow's Ghanta Ghar

ANI photo (File photo: Dec 12, 2019)

New Delhi: In the latest developments on anti-Citizenship Act protests, the Uttar Pradesh Police confiscated food items and blankets from women protesting at the Ghanta Ghar area in Lucknow on Saturday (January 18) evening.  

On the lines of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, hundreds of women and children were silently protesting near the Clock Tower in Lucknow's Ghanta Ghar on Saturday. According to ANI, women were protesting and singing the National Anthem while holding the tricolour flags in their hands. The protest at the Ghanta Ghar was so far peaceful until police reached the spot and started confiscating food items along with blankets from the protesters leading to chaos.

Condemning the police action, the women protesters present at the spot raised slogans against the police, calling the police 'thieves'. The women, most of them elderly, have claimed that the policemen snatched their blankets and poured water on the bonfire that they lit to keep themselves warm.

Rubia, 72, sitting with a blanket wrapped around her, said: "We are not causing any disturbance to either the Republic Day parade or the Defence Expo. We will not budge an inch from here till CAA and NRC is withdrawn. My parents and grandparents were born in India and they did not leave any papers for us to show to the government. We have assembled with our children and it is our fight for our rights."

Ishat Jahan, 75, said she was protesting to support her nephew and many others who had been arrested on December 19, 2019, after an anti-CAA protest here turned violent.

However, dismissing the allegations, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone) Vikas Tripathi said that the police did not take away the belongings from the protesters and claimed that they only stopped them from setting up tents at the spot. 

On Friday, the authorities imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in Lucknow in view of Republic Day and the Defence Expo. The move to impose the prohibitory orders was taken by Police Commissioner Sujeet Pandey late Saturday night, who said that it had been done to maintain law and order in the coming weeks. Companies of RAF have also been deployed at the site.

The number of protesters at Clock Tower had been steadily swelling ever since the dharna began three days ago. The cops have been trying to dissuade protestors but to no avail. The protest, which essentially began with Muslim women and children, now has a sizeable presence of Hindu and Sikh women, said IANS. Young boys were entrusted the task of bringing them food, tea, quilts and warm clothes.