'Shaheen Baghs' sprouting across UP despite police crackdown

Notwithstanding the police lathi charge and booking of over one thousand women, the 'Shaeen Bagh' type protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act not only continued in Uttar Pradesh but had spread to more districts.

The police, after failing to force the women to call off their 'dharnas' through persuasion and threats, made lathi charges on the protesters at several places in the state besides detaining scores of them.

Police used force to evict the women protesters from Beniabagh Park in prime minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi on Thursday.

Sources said that some people had been taken into custody and that the cops had blocked the entry points into the Park. ''We will take stern action against the protesters,'' said a senior police official in Varanasi.

Cops also made lathi charge to disperse women protesters in Etawah town late on Wednesday night. Eye witnesses said that the police threw the bed sheets, quilts and other items brought by the protesters to a nearby nullah.

The women alleged that the cops used filthy language against them. Police officials however denied using force.

The women protesters also had a scuffle with the police in Lakhimpur Kheri district, when the latter tried to prevent them from holding demonstration, sources said.

In Raebareli also a large number of women embarked on a dharna near Tiliyakot locality in the town in protest against the CAA.

The dharna against the CAA continued for the seventh day in the state capital of Lucknow. The women protesters, who hailed from different communities, read verses from 'Koran' and also organised 'yajna' (a Hindu religious ritual by fire) at the historic Clock Tower Park.