At Gauri Lankesh's death anniversary event, participants sport badges that read 'me too urban Naxal'

The protest against the arrest of five activists—prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha—reverberated at an event organised to mark the first death anniversary of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Gauri Memorial Trust and Gauri Lankesh's supporters are organising a series of events to mark the first anniversary.

The participants of one such event on Wednesday sported badges which read 'me too urban Naxal'. The badges also had a tagline—promoting peace, promoting nonviolence.

Following the arrest of the activists, the hashtag #MeTooUrbanNaxal was trending on twitter, with thousands of tweets, retweets and likes. The hashtag was created in response to a tweet by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who is also the author of a book titled 'Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam'.

READ MORE: The Gauri Lankesh I knew

A number of activists and others, including Umar Khalid, Jignesh Mevani, Prakash Raj and Shehla Rashid, remembered the slain journalist on her death anniversary.

"#RememberGowri. .. when you silence a voice .. it will only grow louder.. and as these voices continue to fight for inclusive.. democratic .. human INDIA .. how many more can you silence #justasking," tweeted Prakash Raj.

Jignesh Mevani posted a photo with Gauri Lankesh on his twitter page.

"One year later, I don't feel Gauri's loss. I feel that she's still around. Justice loving people have kept her memory alive. She's everywhere. Right-wing terrorists have only managed to kill her physically. Her kindness, intellect and beauty is all around us. #GauriLankesh," tweeted Shehla Rashid.

A fierce critic of fundamentalism and communal politics and known for her strong anti-Hindutva views, Gauri Lankesh, who used to run a tabloid, was shot dead on the night of September 5, 2017, from close range in front of her Rajarajeshwari Nagar house in Bengaluru around 8pm. Some of the people arrested in the case are allegedly linked to Hindu right-wing groups.

ALSO READ: On anniversary of Gauri Lankesh killing, cops accused of delaying probe

Meanwhile, her sister Kavitha expressed happiness over the progress made by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The SIT has so far arrested 12 people and some of them were allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha and its allied outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.

Kavitha said the SIT had not only made arrests, but also guided the CBI and other agencies to nab killers of rationalists Govind Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgi.

"I am very happy with the SIT considering that the CBI and other agencies had not done anything from Maharashtra. Now all those linkages are coming out, from Gauri to Pansare to Dabholkar, and Kalburgi. CBI and other agencies are taking the help of SIT," she added.