Anti-CAA march in Malegaon: Organiser claims police threatened to deny nod to march if Jamia students attended, SP denies

Shan-e-Hind, who is also the convenor of the Dastoor Bachao Committee, said: “We had contacted the students two weeks ago and asked them to attend. They agreed but soon after, certain individuals warned them against coming to Malegaon and the police threatened to not grant us permission if they came.”

Two days before the protest, said Shan-e-Hind, the two students communicated their inability to attend the march. “They told us that they were afraid a law and order situation would erupt if they spoke at the protest,” she added.

However, Nashik Rural SP Arti Singh denied the allegations. “We had told the organisers beforehand that they should be careful not to invite anyone who is likely to make the protesters go out of control. Those were general instructions and not targeted at anyone in particular,” she said.

After the march ended on Monday evening, Shan-e-Hind had also accused Maulana Umrain Mahfooz Rahmani — the All India Muslim Personal Law Board secretary and Dastoor-e-Hind Bachao Committee founder — of trying to prevent it from going ahead.

When contacted, Rahmani said he had objected to women participating in protest. “There was no need for them to come out on the streets, and especially not in an area where they were not segregated from men. I had made my views known to the organisers of the march purely from a religious point of view,” he added. However, he denied having contacted the Jamia students and asking them to stay away from Malegaon.