Woman at Kolkata's Park Circus protest dies

A woman protestor at the anti-CAA gathering in Park Circus Maidan here died early on Sunday after she fell ill at the venue.

The woman, identified as Sameeda Khatun, 56, a resident of Entally in central Kolkata, suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the Islamia hospital where she was declared dead.

Khatun, said to be an asthma patient, was regularly taking part in the demonstration over the past 15 days. "Every day, she would arrive around 3 p.m. and stay till 1 a.m.," said a protester.

As a mark of respect to Khatun, the loudspeakers were switched off on Sunday morning by the protestors as they observed silence in her memory.

On January 7, taking a page out of the anti-CAA gathering in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, some women from the largely Muslim neighbourhood of Park Circus descended on the local park, expressing their anxiety, disappointment and anger about the goings-on in the country,

They started a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register exercise, as also the "state repression" on the anti-CAA protestors in Uttar Pradesh.

Their stock grew as the days passed. First their friends, families and acquaintances came, followed by women belonging to all societal strata from various areas of the city - be it Topsia, Ripon Street, Khiddirpore, Metiaburuz or Prnice Anwar Shah Road.IANS