Small groups of citizens in Ahmedabad took to the streets on Wednesday evening to hold a peaceful demonstration against communal violence in Delhi, Khambhat in Gujarat and Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. As a result of the peaceful protest call, more than 50 people assembled on the footpath outside Kanoria Arts Centre with at least two PCR vans and at least 25 police personnel keeping guard, for nearly an hour.
The protest took place without any written police permission and on the basis of oral assurances from the police. Police personnel asked demonstrators not to raise slogans and only permitted display of placards. Half an hour into the demonstration, two persons whose identities could not be determined, faced the demonstrators while holding a placard stating, “We are artists and we support to CAA & NRC…”. The two were immediately taken away by police and later released.
There was also a call for protest outside the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram to condemn the violence on Tuesday night. However, the event did not take place and five persons, including four students from Gujarat Vidyapith were detained for approximately six hours at the Subhash Bridge police chowki.
The detainees included educator and activist Abhishek Khandelwal, Vidyapith students Utpal Anish, Dharam Hadvani, Himanshu Sharma and Chirag Tadvi.
