#NotinMyName LIVE UPDATES: Thousands gather to protest against mob lynchings
#NotinMyName: Hundreds of people have gathered at various locations around the country to protest against the mob violence. The protests are being organised in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and many more cities.
#NotinMyName: Hundreds of people have gathered at various locations around the country to protest against the mob violence.
The lynching of a 15-year-old youth in a Mathura-bound train last week has triggered widespread protests across the country, with people taking to the streets under the common banner, ‘Not in My Name’. Hundreds of people have gathered at various locations around the country to protest against the mob violence.
The protests are being organised in New Delhi, Kolkata, Allahabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Patna, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram. Similar protests will be held in London, Toronto, and Boston on June 29.
#NotinMyName Live Updates:
9.30 pm: “Dear Ma, I am home. You wanted me to buy new clothes in Delhi, but fate has landed me in heaven, where you don’t have marauding mobs. I am home. Yours, Junaid.” This was a letter read out by Junaid’s 22-year-old brother Mohammed Asaruddin, who called it a “letter to his mother from heaven”.
“Even I was called a terrorist in college. This issue is of identity and we have reached a point where we are having to conceal skull caps and other symbols that define Islam,” Asaruddin added to the crowd at Jantar Mantar, reported PTI.
7.47 pm: Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweets a picture from Jantar Mantar.
India’s answer to hate,fear & violence! Jai Hind 🇮🇳#NotInMyName pic.twitter.com/yztXZP5pTa
— Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) June 28, 2017
7.45 pm: Congress leader T S Singh Deo tweets condemning the incidents of lynching. He says, “No lynching and certainly #NotInMyName. I condemn it & request other citizens to come forward. This is not the nation we imagined.”
7.41 pm: AAP leader Ashutosh tweets, “It’s time to stand up and oppose barbarism #NotInMyName”. He is also at the protest in Jantar Mantar.
नफ़रत के खिलाफ आवाज़ बुलंद करो । #NotInMyName pic.twitter.com/rB9eDokYDg
— ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) June 28, 2017
6.40 pm: Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia arrives at Jantar Mantar. Speaking to the indianexpress.com, Sisodia said: “I haven’t seen such insecurity across the country…I am worried about for my family, society and country…The nation’s voice must be heard.”
Sisodia at the protest (Source: Vishnu Varma)
Sisodia also tweets:
ये “देश” है कि एकजुट रहना चाहता है…वो “देश का निजाम’ है जो बांट देना चाहता है… pic.twitter.com/SvHffu90bd
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) June 28, 2017
Also read: What is the ‘Not In My Name’ protest? Click here.
(Source: Aaron Pereira)
CPI MP D Raja also joined the protests. “Today there is a protest, it is a political initiative taken by the citizens of the country against the lynching that is going on across the country, against minorities, against Dalits, particularly in BJP-ruled states. PM Modi has not uttered a word on the ongoing lynching of Dalits and minorities in the country. Such a killing cannot happen…The Government has to defend our secular right and the constitution. Govt has completely failed…”
“This is a strong message to the Prime Minister and the government, they cannot think that this will go unchallenged.”
Meanwhile, CPI(M) on its official Twitter handle extended its support to the campaign. “CPIM extends support to the citizens match #NotInMyName against Mob Lynchings by right wing Hindutva forces,” it tweeted.
6.30 pm: Indianexpress.com’s Aaron Pereira and Vishnu Varma, who are at the protest site in Jantar Mantar, get us the latest visuals.
(Source: Aaron Pereira)
Protesters holding placards at Jantar Mantar. (Source: Aaron Pereira)
Musicians performing on a stage as crowds swell at Jantar Mantar. (Source: Aaron Pereira)
6.20 pm: Here is list of recent mob lynchings in the country.
1) Junaid Khan was stabbed to death on a Mathura-bound train after an argument over seats escalated into a scuffle.
2) J&K police officer Ayub Pandit was beaten to death by a mob outside a Srinagar mosque.
3) Zafar Hussain, a 44-year-old man from Rajasthan, was beaten to death after he objected to government officials engaged in the Swachh Bharat campaign to taking photographs of women defecating in the open.
4) Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin Ali were lynched by villagers in Nagaon on suspicion of stealing cows.
5) Dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was waylaid and lynched by a mob in Alwar while he was transporting cows.
6.10 pm: Noted Historian Ramchandra Guha has joined the protests at Bengaluru’s Town Hall. In Mumbai, Actress Shabana Azmi told Hindustan Times, “It is not an isolated incident (lynching of a Muslim teenager). Need a stringent law against the perpetrators.”
(Source: Aaron Pereira)
6.06 pm: In Mumbai, actors Konkana Sen, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin and many others braved the heavy rains to attend the protest. Meanwhile, Hindustan Times is reporting that protesters in Hyderabad have been asked to disperse by the police as they have not obtained prior permission. In Lucknow, protesters are seen sporting black armbands.
6.00 pm: Gurgaon-based independent filmmaker, Saba Dewan is spearheading the protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. Dewan’s post went viral on Facebook with many responding to her rallying call. “Shouldn’t there be protests against the lynchings especially after the murder yesterday in Delhi NCR by a mob of a 16-year-old Muslim boy? If not now then when? Why wait for political formations to organize a demonstration? Why can’t all of us as citizens repulsed by the violence get together in protest at the earliest next week at Jantar Mantar under the banner – Not in my Name,” she wrote in the post.
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