We are farmers’ daughters, said Bilkis Bano before leaving for the protest.
New Delhi:
Bilkis Bano, the octogenarian who became the face of the months-long protest against the anti-citizenship law in the capital’s town of Shaheen Bagh, was prevented from joining the Delhi police on Tuesday. Ongoing farmer agitation against the Center’s new farm laws.
“We are daughters of farmers, today we will go to support the farmers’ protest. We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us,” Ms Bano told ANI before heading to the Delhi-Haryana border.
However, the police detained Ms. Bano, popularly known as Shaheen Bagh dadi, at the Singhu border crossing.
“She was detained at the Singhu border and the police escorted her back to her home in southeast Delhi,” said a senior police officer, according to PTI.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting in and around Delhi demanding the repeal of three agricultural laws introduced by the central government in September.
At the peak of the Shaheen Bah protest last year, Ms Bano was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bollywood actor Ayushman Khurrana.
During that protest, the 82-year-old man sat under a tent with hundreds of women and children, braving the extremely cold weather. The protest in Shaheen Bagh ended in March this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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