MANGALURU: More than one lakh people turned up at Shah Garden at Adyar on the outskirts of Mangaluru on Wednesday to condemn the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA), National Register of Citizenship (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) at a protest rally organised by Central Muslim Committee.
The protestors waved the national flag while, ‘Azadi’ slogans rent the air as speakers, including activists Harsh Mander, former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, Shivsundar Das, and Muslim religious leaders, addressed the huge gathering. The speakers strongly condemned the contentious CAA, NRC and NPR, stating that they are discriminatory on the basis of religion and affects Muslims. Mander and Das said, CAA and NRC is a step towards Hindu Rashtra, and it poses a serious threat to the country’s equality and brotherhood. Some like the state president of the Popular Front of India (PFI) Mohammed Shakid asked the people not to share any documents for the surveyors of CAA and NRC.
Many speakers strongly condemned the police firing on CAA protestors in Mangaluru on December 19, which killed two persons and demanded action against police commissioner P S Harsha and police inspectors Shantaram Kunder and Shariff.
The rally also passed 10 resolutions. These resolutions include scrapping CAA and NRC, FIR against policemen who killed two people in the December 19 firing, release of compensation withheld for Abdul Jaleel and Nausheen, and withdrawal of cases filed against the innocent. It also demanded a judicial inquiry into the police firing that killed the two people.
Shah Garden was packed with people for the protest, where some were even seen climbing street lights, signboards and buildings in the vicinity to catch a glimpse of the event. Hundreds of volunteers who were spread across Mangaluru city and the protest venue along with police ensured that the protest went off peacefully.
Earlier, all roads from the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts led to Adyar on Bengaluru-Mangaluru national highway as protestors started arriving at the venue in buses, cars and other vehicles. To prevent any untoward incidents in view of the December 19 violence, several check posts were erected in Mangaluru, Bantwal and other places to keep a track on protestors. Security was also beefed up across Mangaluru city in view of the massive protest.