NEW DELHI: Feminists from across the globe condemned the arrest of Pinjra Tod founding members Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal and demanded the charges against them be dropped. Pinjra Tod is a collective of women students and alumni of colleges across Delhi.
The signatories from the United Kingdom, Canada, Palestine, Nicaragua, Portugal, France, Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh, Sweden, Germany, and India said in their statement that community activists and academics from around the world stood in solidarity with Kalita and Narwal.
They said the duo along with others were held as part of the current government’s ‘clampdown on dissent’ against the citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. The government was taking advantage of the dispersion caused by the pandemic, the statement said.
The feminists demanded that the charges against Kalita and Narwal be dropped and that they be immediately and unconditionally released along with other peaceful protesters who participated in the nationwide movement against the CAA and the NRC.
“These arrests come after two months of brutal repression with detention of students Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider, activists Ishrat Jahan, Khalid Saifi and Gulfisha Fatima and hundreds of other Muslim youth as a means of punishing the widespread protests against the CAA-NRC,” said the statement.
The two activists were arrested on May 23. After being presented before the duty magistrate, the duo were granted bail. However, soon after, the two were re-arrested and sent to police custody. Both are students at the JNU.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court had on Tuesday allowed the extension of judicial custody of Safoora Zargar and Meeran Haider who were booked under UAPA in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi in February.
“Unprecedented situations require unprecedented solutions. During the lockdown period, the functioning of the courts was suspended. In such circumstances, the police had no other option but to seek extension of the judicial remand,” the court said.