Over three months after a large group of women began daily protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Delhi Police on Tuesday cleared the site for being in violation of the ongoing lockdown in the national capital.
Delhi was placed under lockdown by the Arvind Kejriwal government from Monday as part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Last week, Kejriwal had said all public gatherings were prohibited, including protests.
News agency ANI reported a Delhi Police official as saying, "People at the protest site in Shaheen Bagh were requested today to clear the site as lockdown has been imposed. But after they refused, action was taken against violators as the assembly was unlawful. Protest site has been cleared. Some protesters have been detained."
Earlier on Tuesday, the Delhi Police had deployed additional personnel to the Shaheen Bagh area as prohibitory orders were in force.
The protests at Shaheen Bagh were a key theme of the BJP's campaign for the February Assembly polls in Delhi. The Shaheen Bagh protests had polarised public opinion and evoked threats of violence. A petrol bomb was hurled by an unidentified person near the protest site at Shaheen Bagh on Sunday
