- Title: Indian police break up citizenship protests as coronavirus lockdown enforced
- Date: 24th March 2020
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (MARCH 24, 2020) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE STANDING AT CLEARED PROTEST SITE BROKEN TENT AT PROTEST SITE VARIOUS OF POLICE STANDING AT CLEARED PROTEST SITE WORKERS LOADING BARRICADE ONTO TRUCK POLICE OFFICERS STANDING AT CLEARED PROTEST SITE VARIOUS OF CRANE LIFTING BASE OF FLAG POLE VARIOUS OF BARRICADES AND OTHER MATERIAL LOADED ON TRUCK DIGGER BEING USED TO BREAK UP BASE OF FLAG POLICE (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) DELHI POLICE JOINT COMMISSIONER, D.C. SRIVASTVA, SAYING: "The environment that is there due to the coronavirus, COVID-19, which is a very dangerous one, so some of the mischievous elements (of the community) tried to create problems but we detained them and took actions to clear the (protest) site and till now the site cleaning operation is going on peacefully and we hope that we will clear it very soon." VARIOUS OF POLICE WALKING ALONG STREET/GROUP OF PEOPLE SEEN GATHERED AT END OF STREET VARIOUS OF POLICE STANDING BY/PEOPLE GATHERED ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER, SAYING: "Five ladies were sitting there (at the protest site), nobody else was sitting. They deceived (them) and damaged the protest site because of this. The people of Shaheen Bagh are very angry. There is the issue of coronavirus, we are supporting that but the ladies who you (police) have detained, they should be released." VARIOUS OF POLICE OFFICERS AND WORKERS REMOVING TARPAULIN SHEET FROM JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA UNIVERSITY PROTEST SITE BROKEN SIGNAGE ON GROUND DRONE FLYING MAN OPERATING DRONE WORKER CLEANING ROAD BARRICADES BEING TOWED BY POLICE VEHICLE LUDHIANA, PUNJAB, INDIA (MARCH 24, 2020) (ANI -NO USE INDIA) (HD) MARKET AREA PEOPLE IN VEGETABLE MARKET CAULIFLOWER STACKED ON MINI TRUCK PEOPLE BUYING CAULIFLOWER PEOPLE IN VEGETABLE MARKET MAN CARRYING SACK OF CAULIFLOWER MAN ARGUING WITH VEGETABLE VENDOR POLICE SHOUTING AT PEOPLE TO RETURN/PEOPLE RUNNING AS POLICEMAN WALKS TOWARDS THEM (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) LUDHIANA RESIDENT, RAMANANDA, SAYING: "We came to buy vegetables at about 5-6 o'clock, but police ran us off beating us with batons." REPORTER ASKING: "Government has put a lockdown because of this disease, so is that why they are beating people?" RAMANANDA SAYING: "There is this disease and we accept that there is this disease and the lockdown is also necessary, I agree. But there will be a time where people don't have food to eat. If they don't let us buy vegetables, then how will we eat. And if we aren't eating then how will these beatings work?" PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA (MARCH 24, 2020) (ANI -NO USE INDIA) PEOPLE AND VEHICLES AT WHOLESALE VEGETABLE MARKET TRUCKS LOADED WITH FRESH VEGETABLES DRIVING BY PEOPLE GATHERED TO BUY FRESH VEGETABLES MAN DRIVING SCOOTER LOADED WITH FRESH VEGETABLES VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BUYING SACKS OF VEGETABLES WOMAN ARGUING WITH POLICE/ POLICE FORCIBLY REMOVING WOMAN VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF VEGETABLES KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA (MARCH 24, 2020) (ANI -NO USE INDIA) PEOPLE AT VEGETABLE STALL VEGETABLE VENDOR RATAN SAHA PACKING POTATOES FOR CUSTOMER PILE OF ONIONS PILE OF GARLIC (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) VEGETABLE VENDOR, RATAN SAHA, SAYING: "Public stocked like crazy yesterday (that's why prices are high). Today, the crowd is relatively low. Lockdown is there but we will be open till 5 pm (GMT 1130) every day. But people are panicking; those who need 2 kilograms were buying 20 kilograms. We tried to refuse, we told them that vegetables will be available every day till 5 pm but they don't listen to us." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN MEAT AND FISH MARKET PEOPLE BUYING EGGS EGGS
- Embargoed: 7th April 2020 11:08
- Keywords: COVID-19 India Narendra Modi citizenship law coronavirus curfew lockdown markets movement restrictions protests
- Location: NEW DELHI / LUDHIANA, PUNJAB / PUNE, MAHARASHTRA/ KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI / LUDHIANA, PUNJAB / PUNE, MAHARASHTRA/ KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001C6ETLJB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Police in India's capital broke up the longest-running protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's citizenship law on Tuesday (March 24), citing a ban on public gatherings because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Dozens of people, many of them women, have been staging a sit-in protest since early December on a street in the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood, which has become a focal point for opposition to the law seen as discriminating against Muslims.
Delhi is under a lockdown until the end of the month to halt the spread of the virus and public gatherings of more than five people have been banned.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, which eases the path for non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries to gain citizenship, triggered weeks of sometimes violent protests against Modi's government after it was passed in December.
Elsewhere, police enforced lockdowns across large parts of the country on Tuesday, with curfews in some places, as health officials warned that the coronavirus was spreading out of big cities where it first appeared into the small towns that dot the landscape.
India has found 485 cases of the coronavirus and nine people have died from the COVID-19 disease it causes but alarm is growing across the region about prospects for its spread into impoverished communities and the ability of resource-starved public health sectors to cope.
(Production: Peter Brownlie, Lucy Marks) - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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