Sameeda Khatoon who was one among many protesters at Park Circus in Kolkata against CAA-NRC has passed away due to cardiac attack. She was having a bad health, and still used to come every day to the protest site to battle against the religiously discriminatory Citizenship Act. Falling sick around midnight on Saturday, she was immediately rushed to the Islamia Hospital. The doctor declared her dead at around 1 in the Saturday night.
Many protesters have expressed their grief and pain at the loss of the brave woman Sameeda. Writing on his Facebook wall, the journalist-cum professor at Aliya University, Mohammad Reyaz said “we hold Amit Shah and Modi responsible for her death. She is a Martyr who laid down her life fighting against CAA. We will not forget her death. In this moment of grief, we all stand with her family”.
The pan-India anti CAA-NRC protests across different corners of the country are being led by women, especially Muslim women. These women defying all myths and presumptions often constructed by the society, have come out bravely against the Hindutva fascistic attack on the country’s largest religious minority Muslims.
While the BJP government ‘wants’ to give citizenship to persecuted minorities excluding Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh through the controversial amendment to the Citizenship Act (1955), the party takes away the right to citizenship from Indian Muslims through NRC, rendering them “stateless”.
The women leading the protests and gatherings are coming tough to the Modi-Amit duo. They are a “movement of real-time resistance” against the Modi’s fascistic ideological commitment.
Responding to the death of Sameeda Khatoon, SIO national president Mr. Labeed, while condoling her death said that we can’t let her sacrifice go in vain and we will not forget it. “We stand by his family in this hours of grief. We will continue the struggle till this black law is taken back”, he added.
He further added that Government should at least come forward now and scrap the discriminatory CAA & stop the plans of implementing NPR_NRC in our country which has created so much insecurity and caused loss of precious human lives.
(Note: This post has been updated)
