HYDERABAD: Anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protesters from the city on Saturday evening kick-started a "call your local politician" drive in a bid to pressurise them to stop the National Population Register (NPR) in Telangana. From Saturday afternoon, an image was widely being shared, which had the caption: "Elected leaders are supposed to listen to us. Make them. Let’s pressurise our leaders to pass a resolution in the Telangana Assembly to stop NPR."
The image had the contact details of all major politicos from the State including IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM’s seven MLAs, TRS MP Ranjith Reddy, Congress MP Revanth Reddy and other MLAs and MLCs. The image said that the contacts were sourced from the website of Telangana Legislature.
The images were shared across all major social media groups on Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram. Faheem, a protester said, "Our CM is not taking any stand on NPR and there’s fear and confusion among the public. Even local MLAs are not comforting the public. The police is also not allowing us to protest even in peaceful manner. People are confused."
"In this scenario, we thought it would be impossible to reach KCR, the only way is to pressurise the local MLAs and ministers. When lot of people start calling, they may understand our pain and anguish," Faheem said.
Shaheen Bagh type sit-in foiled by police
An attempt to create a Shaheen Bagh-type sit-in protest at Barkas Ground behind Hari Dargah was foiled by the city police on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. After Friday prayers, hundreds of burqa-clad women from Barkas and other parts of the city began the sit-in protest.
The women carried anti-CAA-NRC-NPR placards and also indulged in sloganeering. However, as crowds poured in, the city police arrived and stopped the protests saying that they did not have any permission for the protest and disbanded the gathering.
‘Elected leaders should listen to us’
An image social media shared the contact details of major politicians including IT Minister KT Rama Rao, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM’s seven MLAs, TRS MP Ranjith Reddy, Congress MP Revanth Reddy and other MLAs and MLCs
FORMS OF PROTEST