Several members of various like-minded organisations tried to take out a protest march condemning the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), violating prohibitory orders and courted arrest in Hubballi on Thursday.
The office-bearers of the Samana Manaskara Vedike, the Bharatiya Moola Nivasigala Okkuta, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), AITUC, CITU and pro-Kannada and pro-people organisations organised the protest seeking withdrawal of the CAA.
The protest was scheduled to begin from the Ambedkar Statue near the Head Post Office in Hubballi and the protesters had planned to march to the Mini Vidhana Soudha to submit a memorandum seeking withdrawal of of the CAA. However, as a precautionary measure, the Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad issued prohibitory orders in the district on Wednesday night reportedly as per the direction of the State government.
As the protesters, led by Mahesh Pattar, Rajashekhar Menasinakai, Devanand Jagapur, Anwar Mudhol, Babajan Mudhol, Siddu Teji and Vijay Guntral and others, arrived at the venue of the protest, the police personnel were already in place to prevent the protest. The police officials told the protesters that since prohibitory orders were in place, they were not supposed to gather and stage the protest.
However, the protesters said that their constitutional right to protest was being curtailed by the administration through the prohibitory orders and that they would go ahead with their protest. After efforts to convince the protesters failed, the police evicted the protesting members of various organisations and took them into preventive custody.
In all, 54 persons were taken into custody and taken in different vehicles to CAR Ground. They were released late in the evening.
