The Uttar Pradesh Police have detained men who were present at the Hussainabad Clock Tower protest site in Lucknow on Saturday afternoon. A heavy posse of policemen, armed with batons and rifles, surrounded the tower and announced into a handheld loudspeaker, “If any vehicle is parked here unnecessarily it will be taken to the police station. No one should stand here and watch the tamasha. This is a protest by women without permission, but they should conduct it peacefully. No ruckus will be tolerated."
A volunteer present at the site claimed that the men were randomly picked by the police. “The men were slapped and shoved into police vehicles,” the volunteer said.
Another protester, with a child strapped to her body and carrying a milk bottle, said, “Police used very dirty language with us. They said they would take off our burkhas and hit us. They said they would not even spare our children."
The protest at the Hussainabad Clock Tower in old Lucknow started on January 17 and has been led by women, with men mostly standing guard at the periphery. This afternoon as soon as the police started patrolling the periphery, the protesters themselves started to urge the men to leave. “Mard hat jao” (men move away) they shouted repeatedly.
Later, as the men were being detained by the police, the protesters were seen shouting “save us from this government”.
DCP Vikas Chandra Tripathi said, "One woman and seven men have been taken into custody".
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The DCP said they were arrested because they were creating obstacles for the police. "Yesterday a procession was taken out without permission and we have filed an FIR against 10 named and 100 unnamed persons for it". He added that the arrested include a young man from Jamia Nagar in Delhi who might have been trying to incite people.
Mohammed Huzaifa, a male volunteer who has been keeping the men away from the site, told THE WEEK the police was only doing their job. “We have been trying to keep the men in check, but some are still getting inside the periphery of the protest. They are either posing as media persons or as relatives of the women who are protesting. Such people are bound to create problems. The police has been cooperating with the protesters, otherwise the sit in would not have continued for so many days," Huzaifa said.
Along with local police, the Rapid Action Force has also been deployed around the site.
One Pooja Shukla, a local politician, too was removed from the site. “She was only trying to reason with the police when they took her away," a protester told THE WEEK.
