UP Cops Thrash Former Teacher After CAA Protest In Lucknow, Says Lawyer // ‘Detained in police facility, I heard screams all night… It was horrific’

By Dilip -
Sadaf Jafar, a former teacher, who is a prominent human rights activist in Lucknow, was arrested and beaten by the Uttar Pradesh Police after  the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act on 19 December turned violent, her lawyer and family allege. Jafar was making videos of the protest and posting them on Facebook. 

In her final video, Jafar can be heard telling a woman constable, “Why are you arresting me? I was protesting peacefully. You could not arrest the people who were pelting stones?”  Speaking with HuffPost India on Sunday, Pradeep Singh, her lawyer, said that he met with Jafar for the first time earlier that day.  Singh said that Jafar had bruises on her eyes, neck, back and the lower part of her body. “Male police officers have beaten her. They have beaten her badly. They have clawed at her hair,” said Singh. “She was beaten at the scene of the protest where she was doing a Facebook Live,” he said. “But they also beat her while she was in the lockup. They have hit her with batons.” 
Singh said that Jafar told him that policemen had kicked her in the stomach.  Her family and friends say they did not know where Jafar was being held after she was arrested on 19 December for almost two days. The UP Police, they say, did not give them any details about her whereabouts. They finally managed to locate her at the Hazratganj police station....
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‘Detained in police facility, I heard screams all night… It was horrific’
“There were more than 50,000 people protesting. Initially it was peaceful but soon more crowds began to gather near Meenakshi Chowk. After a few hours, stone-pelting began and we had to resort to lathicharge and teargas shelling to contain them. Not a single round was fired from the police side. In fact, we have recovered empty shells of various ammunition from the side of the protesters,” claimed Satpal Antil, SP City, Muzaffarnagar.

Residents claim what followed barely six hours later was a police crackdown in the locality, with personnel entering the lanes of Khalapar and destroying private property with hammers and lathis. Residents, most of whom wished to remain anonymous, claimed more than 80 policemen, both in uniform and civil clothes, barged into homes, broke windows and destroyed items. Haji Anwarilahi, 74, claimed that on Friday night, he was detained by policemen after they smashed his vehicle and entered his home. “I can barely even walk. I could hear sticks banging and breaking things. They even broke a fridge which was supposed to be gifted during a wedding. I was detained in a ‘police facility’, and I heard screams from different rooms all night. It was horrific,” Haji, who claims he was released Sunday morning, told The Indian Express. Many residents from Khalapar claimed they hid in corners of their own homes as policemen roamed around for almost two hours on Friday night. Some claimed they hid on terraces when they saw policemen breaking streetlights and CCTV cameras placed outside their homes.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/caa-protests-detained-in-police-facility-i-heard-screams-all-night-it-was-horrific-6180163/

 see also
Over 1000 Scientists, Academics Demand Withdrawal of Citizenship Bill // Citizenship Amendment Bill is a bid to fashion an ethnic democracy
Bengal Imam who lost son to communal clashes calls for peace // Students Across India Rise Up To Protest Citizenship Act And Police Brutality
Deb Mukharji: CAA-NRC: Lessons from the Assam experience  
Jab Hindu Muslim raazi / to kya karega Nazi
The split wide open: India is at risk of alienating allies by citizenship programme
‘Am glad I went’: Ramachandra Guha explains why he joined CAA protests
Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Discrimination, not justice
Advice to the Young
Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
Jairus Banaji on the history of Indian capitalists; and the BJP's assault on human rights


Agenda for Social Democracy





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