Asad Rehman

The men, coming from Rewari in Haryana, covering the 550-plus km partly in packed buses and mostly on foot, and headed for anywhere between 25 and 125 further kilometres, desperately tried to thumb a ride. But no luck.

The Sultanpur district administration imposed quarantine on the IAS officer. Mishra, his wife Kavita and four other family members have been put under quarantine after he hid his travel history from them. 

At Lucknow’s Akbar Nagar slum, surrounded by posh localities of Mahanagar and New Hyderabad, three men in their 20s with black masks sit on a parked cycle rickshaw, with eyes glued to their mobile phones’ screens.

On Wednesday, grocery store owners accused police of harassing delivery staff, leading to disruption in services.

The women protesters at Ghanta Ghar, who have been sitting in protest since January 17, in a letter to Lucknow Police Commissioner Sujeet Pandey informed their decision to pause their protest.

Thakurganj police station SHO Pramod Kumar Mishra confirmed, “They (protesters) have left the spot and the place is empty now.”

The traffic lights turned red, green and yellow, to an empty road, and stray dogs ambled about. All the shops, except those selling essential commodities, were shut. Policemen were seen at every 500 metres on roads, keeping a check on people’s movement.

The Lucknow administration on Tuesday issued “recovery certificates” and “demand notice” to the 13, whose cases come under the jurisdiction of the Hasanganj Police Station.

Thirteen people have been told to pay Rs 21.67 lakh, their names & photos plastered across Lucknow for anti-CAA protest.

The administration had put up banners and hoardings with photographs and addresses of the 13 people and 44 others across the city last week earning the ire of the Allahabad High Court, which called it “unjust”, and ordered the immediate removal of the hoardings.

Among those shown in the posters are leading activists, including Congress leader Sadaf Jafar, Rihai Manch founder Mohammad Shoaib and Deepak Kabir, prominent Shia cleric Kalbe Sadiq’s son Kalbe Sibtain Noori, and retired IPS officer and activist S R Darapuri.

The three of them have been sent to judicial custody till March 2. Azam and his family members face several other cases with Azam having 86 cases lodged against him since April last year.

On Tuesday, police had lodged a case under IPC sections 376D (gangrape), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) against seven people.

Speakers from Delhi-based gender rights group Pinjra Tod also took part in the protest and spoke against the citizenship law. Natasha Narwal, a member of Pinjra Tod, and four other activists had travelled from Delhi on a bus. 

Police alleged that the accused raised anti-national slogans and indulged in rioting during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Jauhar Ali park under Bilariyaganj police station.

Those arrested were among 35 persons named in the FIR, police said, including a woman identified as Munni Bano who was released “as she is a heart patient”. All those arrested were sent to jail, police said.

Eight of those arrested are members of Popular Front of India (PFI), according to police.

“This administration is not respecting women protesting peacefully. The policemen beat up the men who were near the protest site, while they misbehaved with us. They said they will beat us up after taking off our burqa. This is not how the police should behave with peaceful protesters," a protester said.

Police also lodged a fresh FIR against prominent Shia cleric Kalbe Sadiq’s son Sibtain and others, hours after Sadiq visited the women at Ghanta Ghar to lend them support.