Amid stir in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, SC hears plea against demolition: 10 points

In Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, locals were seen sitting on roads on Monday as the civic body (South Delhi Municipal Corporation) eventually halted the anti-encroachment drive amid huge resistance. Shaheen Bagh, which was headlined globally due to the anti-citizenship law protests in 2019, is the second area to witness massive demonstrations weeks after Jahangirpuri saw agitation over bulldozers. Critics had linked the demonstrations in the northwest Delhi area to the violence during Ram Navami, saying poor people and minorities were being targeted. A petition -  challenging the Shaheen Bagh demolition - by the CPI(M) is being heard in the Supreme Court. 

Here are ten points on the Shaheen Bagh protests:

1. AAP MLA Amanutullah Khan joined the stir on Monday, and while slamming the BJP, he told reporters: "People have already removed encroachments on my request. Some structures outside a mosque here were removed in the presence of police earlier. Why have they come here then? Just to do politics?"

2. Owners of some shops, where a bulldozer was headed, were seen removing the scaffolding for construction voluntarily.

3. “Our teams with bulldozers, trucks and police force have reached Shaheen Bagh to remove illegal encroachments there. Removal of encroachment is our obligatory function which we are carrying out,” SDMC's Central Zone chairman, Rajpal Singh, told news agency PTI.

4. Delhi Police personnel were present in huge numbers on Monday to provide security to the civic body.

5. The anti-encroachment drive was earlier scheduled for last week but later postponed. "We've already informed police about our program and our officials. Bulldozer also reached there (Shaheen Bagh area) but due to the non-availability of sufficient force, we postponed today's program,” Rajpal Singh had said at that time.

6. The drive comes as the national capital gears up to vote for civic body polls. The AAP has alleged action by the BJP against the poor.

7. "The BJP has made a plan to run bulldozers in 1,750 unauthorised colonies and 860 slum colonies because these are illegal. First, their councillors allowed illegal construction and made money and now they want to demolish them. The BJP should first run bulldozers on houses of their councillors who allowed such illegal constructions," Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had said last week.

8. Shaheen Bagh, which falls under the central zone of SDMC, was the centre of protests and sit-ins against Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019. The sit-in was called off in March 2020 amid the pandemic.

9. On Monday, traffic movement was blocked near Shaheen Bagh amid the demonstrations against the anti-encroachment drive.

10. Last month, the Supreme Court had taken note of the Jahangipuri demolitions.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)