By Sumedha Pal / The Wire
New Delhi: Gujarat Police has detained seven activists ahead of their planned foot march in solidarity with and to demand justice for Bilkis Bano, late on September 25.
Those detained were Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, Noorjahan Diwan, Tanushree, Nitesh Gangaramani, Kausar Ali, T. Gopal Krishna and Hanif Kalandar. Panchmahal district police called the detention “preventive action.”
The activists were detained from Kalandar’s residence in Godhra and brought to the town’s B-Division police station. Some of the activists posted live videos on social media from the police station.
Sandeep Pandey who is detained at the Kakanpur police station has reportedly started a fast in protest against the police action.
Three of those detained – Hanif Kalandar, Noorjahan and Tanushree have been released.
Speaking to The Wire, Hanif Kalandar said, “A total of eight people were detained. The others are still at Kakanpur police station. We were not given any reason as to why we were detained. We want to go ahead with our foot march now that three of us have been released.”
He added, “I feel like we are being blackmailed by the Gujarat police and the Modi government. All we are asking for is justice and we are asking for those who have committed the crimes against Bilkis to be given their due punishment.”
The proposed foot march was to have taken off from Randhikpur in Dahod on September 26. The Hindu Muslim Ekta Samiti, which had organised it, wanted to walk till Ahmedabad.
The purpose of it was to stand by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and several of whose family members were murdered during the 2002 Gujarat riots. This August, men who had been convicted of these crimes were set free after their sentences were remitted.
This story was originally published in thewire.in . Read the full story here