India / Locals protest against Shaheen Bagh protest demanding opening of roads

New Delhi: Residents of Sarita Vihar and Jasola, who have been the worst affected due to the blockade of a key road by the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, on Sunday held a counter-protest against the stir which today completed 10 weeks, after starting on December 15.

The residents, who sat on a road, held placards, demanding an end to the ‘conspiracy’ of using women and children as shields to ‘harass’ the other women and children.

Notably, the development comes on a day Wajahat Habibullah, one of the three Supreme Court-appointed mediators in the Shaheen Bagh road closure case, filed an affidavit in the top court, terming protests ‘peaceful,’ instead blaming the Delhi Police for closing nearby roads, thus causing inconvenience to the commuters.

Senior Supreme Court counsels Sanjay Hegde and Sadhana Ramachandran are the two other interlocutors appointed by the top court to resolve the ongoing impasse. The protesters, who have thus far refused to open the road, have instead submitted a charter of requests to the interlocutors, to agree to their request to relocate the protest.

On Saturday, the Noida-Kalindi Kunj Road, one of the key roads blocked by the Delhi Police, was opened, then closed and finally reopened by the protesters.

The next hearing in the case will take place on Monday.