By Muslim Mirror Desk
New Delhi, April 21: Prominent personalities of Bollywood, artists and activists have expressed their concerns over the “witch-hunt” of students and activist who actively participated in anti-CAA protests before the coronavirus lockdown. A statement signed by them read, ” A riot [February’s Delhi violence] in which the minorities suffered the maximum damage, both in terms of lives and livelihoods, has now become a pretext for the Delhi Police to further witch-hunt activists, most of whom also come from the minority community.”
In a fresh turn of events, the Delhi Police have invoked stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against Umar Khalid, Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar, who are have been under police custody for several weeks.
The lockdown cannot be a lockdown of the rights of citizens, and must not be abused by the authorities in this manner. These actions of the Delhi Police are utterly inhuman and undemocratic, the statement said.
The activists and artists also condemned the police decision to call students and activists for interrogation during the lockdown. “Making several people travel to police stations every day and then throwing some of them to jails also defeats the purpose of the lockdown and makes a mockery of social distancing.”
At a time when various governments are releasing under-trials from jail to relieve the pressure from the prisons and restrict chances of contamination, the Delhi Police is pushing students and activists into jail, they added.
They further maintained that many people in the country and the world had condemned the draconian Citizenship Amendment Act. Our opposition to the CAA continues, as wee it as a bigoted law that strikes at the secular fabric of our country. We condemn this witch hunt of students and activists because they exercised their constitutional right to protest against CAA/NRC/NPR.
The activists and personalities of Bollywood urged the Delhi Police to put an end to this witch-hunt and release the students and activists.
The signatories include Mahesh Bhatt, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal Dadlani, Ratna Pathak Shah, Sushant Singh, Zeeshan Ayyub, Hansal Mehta, Nandita Das, Ashwini Chaudhury, Onir, Vinita Nanda, Sandhya Mridul, Kumud Chaudhary, Neeraj Ghaywan, Vinay Shukla, Sohail Tatari, Kushan Nandy, Ankur Tewari, Aparna Sen, Shashank Arora, Abish Mathew, Andre Borges, Konkona Sen Sharma, Mallika Dua, Saba Singh Azad, Trisha Shetty, Shahana Goswami, Shruthy Menon.