The Mumbai Police on Tuesday evicted those protesting here at the Gateway of India against violence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and relocated them to Azad Maidan citing inconvenience to tourists and locals.
Before shifting the protestors, Sangramsingh Nishandar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1) had appealed to protesters to relocate to Azad Maidan due to disruption in traffic at the Gateway of India.
"There is only one Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) toilet at the Gateway of India, Azad Maidan has all facilities. There is water. We have no objection against your slogans, posters and placards or anything. There were even posters of free Kashmir," the DCP said while appealing students and others to shift their protest to Azad Maidan.
"There are tourists coming here. Thousands of people going to hospitals and locals going to their offices using this route. There are several other andolans parallelly going on. Public peace was disturbed. Protestors also took out a march, which is against the court's order. Nothing was being followed for the two days. As rules were not followed, we sincerely appeal to you to relocate yourself. We have nothing against the peaceful assembly but I am declaring this assembly is unlawful," he added.
After relocating the protestors forcefully by putting them into buses, Nishandar said: "The roads were getting blocked and common Mumbaikar and tourists were facing problems. We had appealed to protesters many times. We have now relocated them to Azad Maidan."
The protestors while being evicted raised slogans of "Inqilab Zindabad" and "Mumbai Police Murdabad".
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and lyricist Vishal Dadlani had joined the protest being organised by students at the Gateway of India last night.While Kashyap had said that he was there at the protest site to show his solidarity with the students and blamed the government for the attacks in JNU campus, Dadlani had stated that he was there in support of a secular India. The students and activists had gathered here on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, soon after the reports of violence in JNU became public.Placards with "We stand with JNU", "Stop attacks on students" written on them were also seen at the Gateway of India.Politicians, cutting across party lines, had condemned the attack on students which had taken place in JNU on Sunday. They had urged the administration to take nab the culprits and take strict action against those found guilty.More than 30 students were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre after a masked mob entered the JNU on Sunday and attacked them and professors with sticks and rods.
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