Coronavirus Outbreak: Police remove anti-CAA protestors from Shaheen Bagh as Delhi govt imposes lockdown to curb COVID-19 spread

Police cleared the Shaheen Bagh protest site on Tuesday as a lockdown was imposed in Delhi amid the coronavirus outbreak. [caption id=“attachment_8182431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Shaheen Bagh protest. PTI[/caption] “People at the protest site in Shaheen Bagh were requested today to clear the site as lockdown has been imposed. But after they refused, the action was taken against violators as the assembly was unlawful. Some protestors have been detained,” RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police Southeast Delhi, told ANI. A few women had continued the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh on Monday despite a lockdown. A report in Hindustan Times said that all but five protestors returned home from the site on Monday, leaving behind slippers as a symbolic gesture of their agitation and to show support for the fight against COVID-19. “Only five women protesters will remain inside the tent at the protest at all times. We’re not allowing elderly women or those with cold to be among them. The women will protest in shifts,” Abid Sheikh, one of the organisers, said. Additionally, the Delhi Police had also told the Shaheen Bagh agitators that more than four people would be allowed to sit in for the protest till 31 March and that those protestors should sit three metres apart from each other, Times of India reported. They have also been asked not to use microphones since Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh has been continuing for more than 100 days. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the Supreme Court shut down partially, deferring the hearing of a plea seeking the immediate removal of protestors from Road 13A, where the Shaheen Bagh agitation is based. **Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE updates** Meanwhile, on Sunday, unidentified people threw bottles filled with inflammable substances at two places near the site - one at a police barricade and another in a lane. No one was hurt.