By Irshad Hussain & Mubashir Naik
Srinagar: On 16 October 2023, hundreds of people staged a protest at the Rangoli Metro Art Center, next to the Mahatma Gandhi Road metro station in Bengaluru, to express solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Police detained 25 of them, alleging that the Karnataka High Court directions allowed protests and demonstrations only at a local park and that the gathering, by standing on the footpath, hindered public movement and disobeyed the court ruling.
Eleven of the protest organisers were booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 283 (danger or obstruction in a public way ), 290 (creating public nuisance ), 291 (continuance of nuisance after injunction to discontinue), and 149 (unlawful assembly with common object).
The protestors in Bengaluru were not the only ones who received this treatment from the police.
A nationwide crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, filing cases and arresting protesters, has taken place even as the Indian government continues to support Palestine’s full membership at the United Nations, a two-state solution, and condemned the loss of life in Gaza at least six times (here ,here, here, here, here and here) since October 2023.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.