A large number of police personnel have been deployed at Delhi’s Jaffrabad where hundreds of women are staging a sit-in protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Over 800 people blocked the road below the Jaffrabad metro line which connects Seelampur to Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar.
Jaffrabad Anti-CAA Protests Live Updates
The women, carrying the tricolour and raising “Azaadi (freedom)” slogans, said they would not move from the site till the Centre revoke Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The women protesters are also supporting Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad who has called for a nationwide strike earlier this month said that “quotas and reservations for promotions for government jobs is not a fundamental right”.
The crowd swelled overnight as more women and children joined them. “We want freedom from CAA, NRC,” said one of them. Amid the protests, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) announced that the entry and exit of Jaffrabad station have been closed and trains will not be halting at this station.
The area has been barricaded. This morning, senior police officer Ved Prakash Surya said that policemen are holding discussions with the protesters to clear the road. He said, “We are holding talks with the protesters so that they leave… they can’t block a major road like this. We have called paramilitary security personnel also.”
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad has called for a ‘Bharat Bandh’ on Sunday against a Supreme Court ruling that states were not bound to provide reservation in promotion and appointments in public employment and also quota is not a fundamental right. Chandrashekhar Azad even urged MPs and MLAs belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes to build pressure on the government to bring an ordinance to nullify the ruling.
Opposition parties in Bihar, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have lent their support to the shutdown. On Friday, the RJD had said that it supports the bandh’s purpose which is to protect reservation and the Constitution, a news report said.
In support of the Bhim Army’s Bharat Bandh, the Jan Adhikar Party workers shouted slogans after stopping a train at a Patna station. Protesters here are demanding an ordinance for reservation in promotions, as well as the removal of CAA, NPR and NRC.
According to the police, the Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad has not taken permission for carrying out a march from Chandbagh to Rajghat in Delhi and so he will not be allowed to go there.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran will meet Shaheen Bagh protesters Sunday evening and decide on whether they will visit Shaheen Bagh again.
Bhim Army supporters are now protesting at Gurugram against the Supreme Court’s ruling on reservations in employment. CAA and NRC are among some issues raise by the protesters during the ‘Bharat Band’.
One of the interlocutors appointed by Supreme Court, Wajahat Habibullah, has filed an affidavit in the court on the road blockage in Shaheen Bagh. The hearing is scheduled to be held tomorrow by a two-judge bench.
Wajahat Habibullah, in his affidavit, has stated that the protest in Shaheen Bagh against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is peaceful and that the police have blocked five points around Shaheen Bagh.
Meanwhile, the anti- CAA protesters in Delhi’s Chand Bagh area have blocked Wazirabad road.
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