Mumbai Police Issues Statement, Says 'Protesters Were Relocated From Gateway of India to Azad Maidan in Peaceful And Professional Manner'

Mumbai, January 7: Mumbai Police on Tuesday issued a clarifying statement on the decision to shift the protesters to Azad Maidan from Gateway of India, stating that roads were getting blocked and tourists and common people were facing problems. Mumbai Police also added that that they did it for the ease of protesters, as there is barely any facility at Gateway of India.

Issuing a clarification for shifting the protesters to Azad Maidan, Mumbai Police took to Twitter and wrote, "Dear Mumbaikars, Azad Maidan is the designated place for all agitations in South Mumbai as per Hon. HC instructions. However, some agitators gathered at an important South Mumbai location for a long duration without any permission." JNU Violence: Mumbaikars Protesting at Gateway of India Evicted by Mumbai Police, Relocated to Azad Maidan.

Adding more, Mumbai Police said that due to the protests, daily commuters and office goers faced difficulties. They further said, "Whatsoever, thereby causing immense inconvenience to office going Mumbaikars, local residents, tourists & also caused major traffic congestion in the area."

Here are series of tweets by Mumbai Police:

With situation blowing out of proportion and protesters refused to turn down the requests of police, they were taken to Azad Maidan by force. Following this, Mumbaikars withdrew their protests against the violence on Jawaharlal Nehru University. A protester Kapil Agarwal said, as quoted by NDTV, "We were forcibly shifted here to Azad Maidan by police. But now we have called off our Occupy Gateway protest. It was a successful protest. Our resistance will continue. We have a long line up of programmes."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 07, 2020 12:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).