After 20 days of protesters especially women braving Delhi's freezing weather in protest against the CAA, the agitation has been called off to 'avoid impending violence from party goons'. In a statement on Facebook, the Shaheen Bagh Coordination Committee said that they feared politicisation of the protest by parties.
Over the last 20 days, the protesters have been applauded for carrying on the protest in a peaceful manner and to have sustained it even as the other protests in the rest of the country mellowed down. The women at Shaheen Bagh have especially been in the limelight as they became the core of the protests, spending nights on the cold roads even as they took turns to tend to their other duties at home and at work,
However, the organisers have decided to call off the protest to avoid violence, "We have called off the Shaheen Bagh road blockade today to avoid the impending violence from party goons and to avoid politicisation of the stage by parties. Police was probably asked not to intervene, because BJP intends to intervene themselves. If that happens, our peaceful protest will be tarnished, and it will break the morale of the people," Sharjeel Imam, one of the key organisers said in an FB post.
However, there was no one organiser, association or group that was behind the protest, it was an out and out peaceful protest. "We have achieved a lot in last 20 days, with greatest among them was the participation of women, and the peaceful way in which we have maintained this. We can block the road again in a few days, if we retreat peacefully," he added.
He also said that hundreds of volunteers and women who have been sleeping on the road have withdraw from the site. "We request all of you to stop sending any assistance to this stage which has been now hijacked by political parties, and cash hungry gangs who dont care about riots and its implications for the community," he requested in his post.
Imam said that they were planning to move into phase 2 of the protests. He said that the next pahse would be inspired by the flash mob strategy used by Hong Kong and that this would be spread across the cities.
