Just hours after students and teachers of JNU were attacked by a masked mob in Delhi on Sunday, 5th January, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Gateway of India in Mumbai to protest against the violence and show their solidarity with JNU.
The ‘Occupy Gateway’ protests gained momentum over the last two days, but they have now been called off after the protesters were forced out by the police. They were forcibly moved to Azad Maidan, 2 km away from Gateway of India.
Several images and videos of protesters being forcibly evicted from Gateway of India have surfaced on the Internet.
According to a report by NDTV, while the organisers have called off the protests at the Gateway of India, they will continue with their protests at other locations in the city.
We were forcibly shifted here to Azad Maidan by police. But now we have called off our Occupy Gateway protest. It was a successful protest. Our resistance will continue. We have a long line up of programmes.
Talking about the impact of the protests, the organisers said:
Our two-day protests have sent the required message across the country on our resistance towards the current situation in the country. It is unprecedented that we were able to occupy Gateway for 40 hours and we were successful.
Reports also suggest that the police dragged away protesters after they refused to comply with the orders. Explaining the reason for forcing the protesters out, a police officer told NDTV that there are no toilet or water facilities at the Gateway of India and it was becoming a challenge to control the crowd.