By Scroll Staff
The police in Goa’s Panaji detained two persons on Saturday for holding a placard expressing support for jailed activist Umar Khalid during a demonstration held in solidarity with the youth protests in Delhi, reported PTI.
Khalid has been in jail since September 2020 for his alleged involvement in the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.
On Saturday, demonstrations were being held in Panaji’s Azad Maidan against the alleged irregularities in the conduct of competitive examinations when a person identified as Danish displayed a poster in support of Khalid.
When he was questioned by reporters, Danish said that he supported Khalid’s release from prison, reported PTI.
Following this, the police detained him.
Some of the demonstrators at Azad Maidan then marched to the police headquarters demanding Danish’s release. As the group continued to shout slogans in his support, the police detained another person, Sudin Dalvi, when he too expressed support for Khalid, an unidentified police official was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha held a demonstration outside the police station demanding stringent action against Danish and Dalvi.
Tushar Kelkar, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Goa unit president, demanded that the police register a case with non-bailable offences against them.
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