As many as 300 protesters, including Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad, were detained today when they tried hold a demonstration here against acquisition of Karbala land in Jor Bagh area of city.
Three metro stations remained shut for several hours and arterial roads in East and New Delhi area were closed for security reasons.
Anticipating the protest, traffic diversions were imposed on NH-24 and Mother Teresa Crescent road. Security was beefed up in the entire New Delhi district, especially at Race course road, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10 Janpath and Congress Headquarters at 24, Akbar Road.
On the advice of Delhi Police, Jor Bagh and INA metro stations on the Yellow Line, which are close to the Karbala land, were closed at 10.17 AM while the Race Course metro station was closed at 1.35 PM. All the three stations were reopened at 4.55 PM, a DMRC spokesperson said.
Initially, the protesters wanted to enter Delhi via NH-24 and march toward Karbala but they later changed plan and gathered at Vaishali metro station.
They then marched toward Delhi via UP gate, where Delhi police stopped them. The demonstrators shouted slogans and tried to disrupt traffic on NH 24 following which Kalbe Jawad along with 300 protesters were detained and taken to Mandawali Vihar police station.
Traffic chaos was witnessed in parts of Noida, Ghaziabad, East Delhi and central Delhi. However, traffic could be normalised by evening.
