Taken serious cognisance of 'free Kashmir' poster seen at Gateway of India during protest against JNU violence, says DCP

Sangramsingh Nishandar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1), on Tuesday, said that serious cognizance has been taken regarding the 'free Kashmir' poster seen in the protest against the violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at the Gateway of India. "We have taken serious cognizance of the 'free Kashmir' poster seen in the protest last night at Gateway of India. Yes, we are definitely investigating it," the DCP told ANI.

Last night, during the protest, a girl was seen holding the poster which read - "Free Kashmir." The demonstrators were seen with several other placards with objectionable and abusive languages.Some posters called for 'Ban on ABVP,' while some others read -- "Stand with JNU." This morning, Mumbai Police evicted those protesting at the Gateway of India and relocated them to Azad Maidan citing inconvenience to tourists and locals.

"There is only one Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) toilet at the Gateway of India, Azad Maidan has all facilities. There is water. We have no objection against your slogans, posters and placards or anything. There were even posters of free Kashmir," the DCP said while appealing students and others to shift their protest to Azad Maidan. "There are tourists coming here. Thousands of people going to hospitals and locals going to their offices using this route. There are several other andolans parallelly going on. Public peace was disturbed. Protestors also took out a march, which is against the court's order. Nothing was being followed for the two days. As rules were not followed, we sincerely appeal to you to relocate yourself. We have nothing against the peaceful assembly but I am declaring this assembly is unlawful," he added.

After being shifted to Azad Maidan, the students said that claimed that they have been detained by the police and they are not free there, "We are not free at Azad maidan. We tried to move out from the gate but police personnel did not allow us to move out. We are detained here," said a student of the core committee formed for the protest.

"We were surrounded by 100 police personnel at Azad Maidan. We did not tell police people that we will not move. We told them we will decide democratically whether we have to move or not. However, police forcefully put us into the buses and brought us here," said another student. The students and activists had gathered at Azad Maidan on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, soon after the reports of violence in JNU became public.

Placards with "We stand with JNU", "Stop attacks on students" written on them were also seen at the Gateway of India. Politicians, cutting across party lines, had condemned the attack on students which had taken place in JNU on Sunday. They had urged the administration to take nab the culprits and take strict action against those found guilty.

More than 30 students were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre after a masked mob entered the JNU on Sunday and attacked them and professors with sticks and rods. (ANI)

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