India Tomorrow
MUMBAI, JANUARY 7—A large number of protesters who had on Tuesday morning gathered at the iconic Gateway of India to condemn the attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students in Delhi, were forcibly removed by the police and sent to Azad Maidan.
A police official told media that the protesters had occupied the Gateway, which is a tourist place, since Sunday midnight. They were first requested to move out from there but were removed by police when they did not comply. Police said that they were sent to Azad Maidan.
The main reason for removing the protesters is said to be lack of toilet facilities at the Gateway which is adequately available at Azad Maidan.
A student from Tata Institute of social Sciences (TISS) told mediapersons that they called off the protest after police removed them from the Gateway of India. However, he said that the protest was successful as a huge crowd had turned up in response to their call for the protest. It were prominently students from TISS, IIT Mumbai and Mumbai University and several colleges who had turned up at the protest venue.
On Sunday night, a large number of Bollywood personalities, political leaders including Abu Asim Azmi, Rohit Pawar, Kapil Patil, farmers leader Ashok Dhawale, activists like Jatin Desai, Fahad Ahmad, NCP leader and Housing Minister Dr. Jitendra Awhad, joined the protests. Former JNU student leader Umar Khalid had also attended the Sunday night’s protest at the Gateway of India.
A huge crowd of people from different educational institutions as also from civil society also gathered at the Gateway of India on Monday and continued the protest throughout the day. Waving national flags, protesters raised slogans against RSS-linked ABVP. They also sang national anthem.
