10 arrested from anti-CAA protest site at Ghantaghar in Lucknow; FIR against 100 women

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Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday arrested 10 people including a woman from Ghantaghar in the state capital, where an anti-CAA sit-in has been on since January 17, and booked 100 women protesters for allegedly violating prohibitory orders.

A woman protestor claimed that police personnel suddenly arrived at the site and arrested volunteers. She alleged that the cops beat up senior citizens and hurled abuses at women. However, the police denied the allegations.

"A case has been registered against 10 women and 100 unidentified women for violating Section 144 of CrPC, while protesting at Ghantaghar. Apart from this, eight persons have been arrested. They are Puja Shukla and seven male volunteers," Station House Officer of Thakurganj police station Pramod Mishra said.

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) prevents assembly of five or more people at one spot.

"Their allegations are baseless. Action was initiated against those who flouted rules," Mishra said on claims that the policemen misbehaved with protesters.

On the lines of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest, around 50 women along with children have been squatting near the Clock Tower in Lucknow's old quarters protesting the CAA and National Register of Citizens.

The women protesters had last Sunday alleged that blankets provided to them by some organisations were taken away by police.

Rubbishing the claims made by the women protesters, the Lucknow Police in a tweet had said, "During the illegal protest going at Lucknow's Ghantaghar Park (Clock Tower), some people tried to make a ''gheraa'' (cordon) using ropes and sticks, and also tried to put sheets. They were not allowed to do so. Some organisations were distributing blankets in park premises. As a result of which, people living in the vicinity, who are not a part of the protests, were coming to take the blankets."

"Police removed those persons and organisations distributing blankets there, and action is being initiated against them," the police had said and urged people not to spread rumours.

The indefinite protest by women at the national capital's Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and NRC has been going on for over a month now.

Besides Delhi, protests have unfolded in several parts of the country over the law since it was passed on December 11 by Parliament and have led to clashes at several places including Uttar Pradesh, where nearly 20 people died last month.

According to the amended law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.