Second man opens fire at protests in India’s Shaheen Bagh
JIH welcomes government talk offer to Shaheen Bagh protesters
New Delhi: Two days after a man opened fire on protesters in New Delhi, a similar incident happened on Saturday as another man fired bullets in the air, in tthe Shaheen Bagh area — a key site of the protests.
The police have detained the man.
Following the incident, there was panic and anger in the area where an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest has been underway for over a month.
A police officer who was present said, “Three bullets were fired in the air. The man has been identified as Kapil, a resident of Dullupura village.”
The man was taken away by the police amid tight security and was being questioned, a police officer told journalists.
The crowd wanted to rough up the man but police prevented the situation from getting out of hand, the officer added. Some people also raised slogans against the police.
On Thursday, a young man opened fire with a home-made .315 bore pistol when the Jamia students were to start their march from Jamia Millia Islamia to Rajghat. The incident left a journalism student, Shadab, with injuries on his arm.
Meanwhile, within hours of the Union government’s ‘structured talk’ offer to Shaheen Bagh protesters, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) said on Saturday that it welcomed the government’s willingness to hold a dialogue with those protesting against the CAA and NRC.
JIH chief Syed Sadatullah Husaini said: “If somebody is sitting at a protest against any law got passed by the government, it’s the government’s duty to talk to the people who are expressing their dissent; if the government is willing to talk to them, it’s a welcome step.”
His response came after Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s statement that the government is willing to hold “structured talk” with those protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.
Prasad had tweeted: “Government is ready to talk to protesters of Shaheen Bagh but then it should be in a structured form and the @narendramodi govt is ready to communicate with them and clear all their doubts they have against the CAA.”
The JIH has condemned what it calls the government’s continued disregard of the countrywide protests against the CAA, NRC, and the National Population Register.
“The government’s dogged persistence on the CAA and execute the NPR — despite the poor state of our economy and faltering GDP growth, rising unemployment, and weak tax collection — exposes its incompetence and inability to steer the nation with wisdom and foresight, a JIH statement said.
The Jamaat appeals to the government to announce the withdrawal of CAA, NPR and NRC as the “nation is paying a heavy price for the intransigence of a few at the helm of power”, JIH Vice President Muhammad Salim Engineer said.