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A bit of Punjab in Shaheen Bagh

Among the first to reach there, last Wednesday was a group of Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan). They arrived armed with ration and cooked langar for the protesters.

Citizenship Amendment Act, CAA, Shaheen Bagh, Shaheen Bagh protests, Shaheen Bagh CAA protests, caa protests, caa protests delhi, caa protest shaheen bagh, indian express

The protests at Shaheen Bagh have been going on since December 11, 2019. (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar)

Over the past week, several organisations from Punjab have been heading to Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, where countless people, especially women, have been participating in a sit-in for more than a month now.

Among the first to reach there, last Wednesday was a group of Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan). They arrived armed with ration and cooked langar for the protesters. “We cooked langar for them for a day. We also provided them with ration items like milk, wheat flour, rice, tea leaves, sugar etc. Around 350 of us went in 5 buses and a tempo traveller. Members of Punjab Students Union (Randhawa), Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Lok Morcha Punjab had also gone with us. We participated in their dharna for a day, did langar Sewa and came back on January 16. It was our way to extend support to them as we too want that no one should be discriminated against in CAA,” Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, general secretary of BKU (Ugrahan), told The Indian Express.

He added, “Now we will be participating in a state-level anti CAA dharna in Malerkotla on February 16. We are on the same page with Shaheen Bagh protesters, but we will be extending support to them from Punjab only for the coming days.”

Not only the above-mentioned unions, on January 19, a group of workers of SAD (Taksali) along with their leaders also went to Shaheen Bagh. Confirming the same, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, SAD Taksali leader said,” Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, Bir Devinder Singh and few other leaders went in this dharna where we extended our support to them. We are of the opinion that Muslims should not be left out in CAA.”

A joint action committee comprising 70 organisations is also staging an indefinite protest in Malerkotla. On Wednesday, they entered the 14th day of their protest at Sirhindi gate. Nadeem Anwar Khan, the convener of this committee, said, “We went to Shaheen Bagh on January 18 and came back on January 20. We took some dry ration along with us for children like tetra packs of milk, water bottles, biscuits, rusk, as well as colours, pencils, copies etc. This Malerkotla dharna is also going on in solidarity with the Shaheen Bagh protest only. In the coming days, we may visit Shaheen Bagh again. Otherwise, we will be organising a state-level protest on February 16 in Malerkotla itself. This is our way to extend support to the Shaheen Bagh protest.”

On January 19, a women’s march had been organised in Malerkotla in which activists from Delhi too had come to take part.

First uploaded on: 23-01-2020 at 11:44 IST

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