Asia News

Thousands detained as New Delhi cracks down on youth protest

Policewomen try to stop a detained protester escaping from a bus during a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party seeking the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, near the protest site in New Delhi, India. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Police detained more than 2,000 people, including opposition politicians, journalists and lawyers. [AP Photo]

Protesters were demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of the voters’ list they say disproportionately benefits the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [Vipin/AP Photo]

Protesters accuse the BJP of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list to sway results, and opposition parties say the revisions affected several recent state elections the party won, casting a shadow over polls in the world’s largest democracy. [Manish Swarup/AP Photo]

The CJP had planned to gather thousands of people at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in central New Delhi. But on Saturday, the area was sealed off by security forces before the demonstration began. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Security forces set up checkpoints on main roads and entry points across the city of 20 million people, boarded buses searching for protesters and inspected vehicles. [Priyanshu Singh/Reuters]

Barricades and concrete blocks disrupted traffic, while antiriot vehicles equipped with tear gas launchers guarded key routes. [Priyanshu Singh/Reuters]

Despite detentions of the founders of the youth movement, small protests took place elsewhere in the city, including at the popular crafts market Dilli Haat. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

The protests represent one of the most serious tests yet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and intensified after The Indian Express daily reported recently that two election commissioners had questioned CEC Kumar’s revisions that removed roughly 130 million names from the voters’ list. [Adnan Abidi /Reuters]

Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city on Saturday, as mobile internet services were suspended in the central business district. Dozens of Delhi Metro stations and markets were also shut. [AP Photo]