Key road shut due to Shaheen Bagh protest reopens after 69 days
A key road near Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh – where protests have been on for two months against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act CAA – was re-opened briefly on Friday (February 21) by the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi Police 69 days after it was barricaded. The reopening comes two Supreme Court-appointed mediators met those who have been sitting in protest for more than two months.
“We urged protesters to come up with creative solutions to the traffic situation, while simultaneously protecting their right to protest,” senior lawyer Sanjay Hegde, one of the mediators, said after meeting the protesters on Thursday.
Noida-Faridabad road has been reopened. It was shut for the last 69 days due to ongoing anti-CAA/NRC protest in Shaheen Bagh in Delhi https://t.co/zsV4kFoDlK pic.twitter.com/8sfks8e8LH
— ANI (@ANI) February 21, 2020
The resulting blockade of an arterial road that connects Noida and Faridabad near Delhi had been repeatedly flagged by the BJP as a law and order problem and was made the centrepiece of its campaign for the Delhi assembly election.
Sanjay Hegde and another advocate, Sadhana Ramachandran, were named as mediators on Monday as the matter ended up in court. They were tasked with persuading the protesters to continue their agitation in another location, so the road can re-open and commuters do not face problems.