Anti-caa protests: 10,000 gather in city, Jail bharo stir in Tiruchy

Organised by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaat, the protests in Chennai was held in tandem with outfits across Tamil Nadu. Organisers claim nearly 10,000 people from the city across religious groups took part in the event. “We have been campaigning for a long time thus far, and we want the government to hear our claims. This is, however, the last protest we have planned,” said G Mohammed, general secretary of the group.

In Tiruchy, based on Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaat’s call for a jail bharo protest, more than 1,000 Muslims especially women gathered in front of the prison premises located at Tiruchy-Pudukkottai road. Anticipating huge head counts, the City police had equipped themselves for crowd management. Most of the members were stopped in the middle of the road and soon, they raised slogans against the State and Centre. The protesters carried the national flag and shouted that they were also the citizens of India and their citizenship has been doubted by the BJP government and passed an amendment targeting the Muslims of the country.

When the police attempted to prevent their advancement into the prison, a section of protesters who carried black balloons released them to express their opposition against CAA. After a few hours, they dispersed from the spot and the traffic flow resumed in the Tiruchy-Pudukkottai main road.

Meanwhile, a section of Muslims in Tiruchy taking part in state-wide protests against CAA, petitioned statue of former Chief Ministers MGR and J Jayalalithaa. The protesters claimed that their prolonged protest yielded no result so far as the State government has been under the control of the BJP led Centre.