Wrestlers not allowed to sit-in protest at India Gate
The country’s top wrestlers, who were taken into custody by the Delhi Police and relocated from their Jantar Mantar protest location, declared on Tuesday that they would throw their hard-won medals into the Ganges River and go on a hunger strike “till death” near the India Gate.
The wrestlers will travel to Haridwar on Tuesday at 6 o’clock in order to immerse the medals in the sacred river, according to Sakshi Malik, a 2026 Olympic bronze medalist, who announced the trip on her Twitter account.
“These medals are our life and soul. We are going to throw them in the Ganges. After that there is no point of living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate,” she said in the statement written in Hindi. The same statement was also shared by her compatriot Vinesh Phogat.
Tuesday happens to be Ganga Dussera in Haridwar and possibly a day when a lot of people will be there to offer prayers.
In the midst of the dramatic events that were taking place at the Jantar Mantar protest site on Sunday, the Delhi police detained Malik, World Championships bronze medalist Vinesh Phogat, and another Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia. They later filed FIRs against them for violating the law and order.
As the wrestlers and their supporters broke through the security perimeter before to their march towards the new Parliament building for the anticipated women’s ‘Mahapanchayat’, unprecedented scenes of police dragging Olympic and world championship medal-winning players were witnessed.
A violent fight broke out when the wrestlers were stopped by police for trying to enter the new Parliament building without permission hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had officially opened it.
The protesting wrestlers and their supporters were taken to different locations in the national capital and later released.
Once the wrestlers were forced into the buses, the police emptied the protest area of the wrestlers’ possessions, including the cots, mattresses, coolers, fans, and tarpaulin ceiling.
The Delhi Police said it will not allow the wrestlers back into the protest site.
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