NEW DELHI: Hundreds of lawyers took out a march from Patiala House Court to India Gate in Delhi on Friday in solidarity with Vikram Chauhan and others who led the violence at the court premises and attacked arrested JNU Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and journalists earlier this week.
Shouting “Vande Mataram” and “Pakistan Murdabad”, the lawyers waved the tricolour to mark their opposition to “anti-nationals”. “Desh ke gaddaron ko bilkul nahi baksha jayega (Traitors of the country will never be forgiven),” said one of the protesting lawyers.
“No one knows the law better than lawyers and according to the law, Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid are terrorists,” said Suresh Sinha, a lawyer, while others carried a symbolic effigy of the JNU student leader. The march was called by Vikram Chauhan, who could be seen in video footage aired on TV news channels as being the prime instigator of violence against Kumar and the journalists at court on Monday and Wednesday. Some of the other lawyers caught on camera assaulting journalists were part of the protest and appeared unfazed by the outrage their acts had generated.
“We will keep attacking anti-nationals no matter what. We will not tolerate insults to our motherland. Let police issue summons against us,” said a lawyer involved in the assaults. Another lawyer claimed those who attacked mediapersons were not from the legal fraternity. “They were not lawyers. Lawyers do not cross limits set by rule books. Outsiders may have been there. Media is defaming the community,” he said.
Stop media trial of Umar, says sister
Maryam Fatima, sister of Umar Khalid, who has been accused of raising anti-India slogans at JNU, says TV news channels have created a lynch mob climate. A PhD student in the US, Fatima said, “Most channels have been conducting media trials based on false information. They first claimed there was an Intelligence Bureau report linking Umar to Jaish-e-Muhammad. This was denied by the IB. But the story is still doing the rounds. It is adding up to a lynch mob climate.” Khalid is a DSU member and PhD student at JNU. A police team has been sent to Himachal Pradesh to trace him as a journalist friend was questioned on Friday.
Maryam Fatima, sister of Umar Khalid, who has been accused of raising anti-India slogans at JNU, says TV news channels have created a lynch mob climate. A PhD student in the US, Fatima said, “Most channels have been conducting media trials based on false information. They first claimed there was an Intelligence Bureau report linking Umar to Jaish-e-Muhammad. This was denied by the IB. But the story is still doing the rounds. It is adding up to a lynch mob climate.” Khalid is a DSU member and PhD student at JNU. A police team has been sent to Himachal Pradesh to trace him as a journalist friend was questioned on Friday.