Shaheen Bagh protesters welcome Supreme Court intervention but not ready to vacate site

Protesters at Shaheen Bagh on Tuesday welcomed the intervention of the Supreme Court in the ongoing protests and said that they are ready to talk to government interlocutors appointed to discuss with them their concerns on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizen (NRC).

However, protesters said they were not ready to vacate the site of the protests.

Talking to ANI, a women participant said: "We welcome the SC appointed mediators. We will discuss this with them and tell them our concerns. We will not move from here until our demands are fulfilled. We want the CAA to be repealed."

Yesterday, hearing a PIL, the Supreme Court had appointed senior lawyers Sanjay Hegde, Sadhna Ramachandran and former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah to talk to protesters at Shaheen Bagh and persuade them to move their agitation to another venue.

The apex court has posted the matter for further hearing on February 24.

Joginder Singh, another protestor said: We are not blocking the roads, protesting is not illegal. We want the government to give it in writing that they will repeal CAA and that there will be no NPR and NRC".

Another woman protester said she is hopeful that intervention by the apex court will lead to the fulfilment of demand of the protestors.

"We have been sitting here for almost two months and they heeded to us now. We will not leave this place and continue our protests. We trust the SC and hope that it will lead to the fulfilment of our demands", she said.