A large number of people protesting on the Karbala land issue were on Tuesday stopped at the Delhi-U.P. border near Ghazipur on National Highway 24 while trying to march towards the Capital.
Traffic was also thrown out of gear on NH-24 from 11 a.m. till late night as the police had erected barricades to stop the protesters from entering Delhi. Commuters who took this route were stuck in traffic for hours and many were forced to take alternative routes to travel across the border from either side.
After the Delhi High Court’s decision to impose a ban on protests related to the Karbala issue, the protesters inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March had decided to organise a peace march from Ghaziabad to Delhi. They were, however, stopped at the border by the Delhi Police and were taken to the Mandawali police station as a preventive measure.
The protesters, who came in different groups to Ghaziabad, had gathered at the Vaishali metro station from 11 a.m. They started the march towards Delhi at 3-30 p.m. after Shia leader Maulana Kalbe Jawad joined them there.
The march that started more than three hours after its scheduled time was conducted peacefully in the presence of a large number of Uttar Pradesh police personnel, who escorted them till the border on the condition that the protesters along with Maulana Kalbe Jawad agreed for peaceful detention upon reaching there.
