BENGALURU: While there was no violence in the city during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests on Thursday, the crowd management by the police at Town Hall area, the epicentre of the agitation, came under criticism.
The permission to hold peaceful protests and its subsequent cancellation created confusion and the participation of political leaders in the agitation resulted in swelling of crowds and the consequent traffic chaos in the central business district of the city.
People started holding protests in front of Town Hall within an hour of Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao passed prohibitory orders on Wednesday night. The clampdown only angered the protesters. A few retired officers blamed “failure of intelligence” in anticipating huge crowds at the spot, while others felt that the police were “over-confident” about managing the crowd.
“It was an alarming call for the top brass to bring in more forces near Town Hall by morning and ensure the protesters were stopped before they reached there. But, there were only one DCP and his sub-ordinates and a few KSRP men. They had a tough time handling the crowds and making way for the traffic,” said a retired officer who served as the commissioner of the city.
The crowds became restive after the permissions for their protest was cancelled. The top brass shouldn’t have given permission and then cancelled it, the retired officer said. The announcement of prohibitory orders was too late, he added.
All the eight Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) of the city were asked to maintain law and order in their divisions. At least four of them should have been rushed to Town Hall area along with their crime staff when the crowds swelled to 5,000-6,000. “I was watching TV. I could find only DCP Chetan Singh Rathore and a police inspector trying to vacate the crowd”, said a retired superintendent of police.
Another officer said it was a failure of intelligence to anticipate political leaders joining the protesters along with their followers. “We noticed Congress leaders Rizwan Arshad and Sowmya Reddy and others protesting. When section 144 was invoked, senior officers should have stopped them from visiting Town Hall. A few opposition leaders statements to media also provoked the crowds”, he said.