Cops halt Bengaluru Slutwalk campaigners in tracks

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The much-talked about ‘Slutwalk’ in Bengaluru was cancelled due to security reasons at the last minute and nine of their volunteers were even arrested from the venue.

The walk, which was scheduled to start from Town Hall and culminate at Freedom Park on Sunday with the aim of making a statement against the trend of blaming victims of abuse, was cancelled 13 hours before it was to take off.

“I met Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Mr T. Suneel Kumar at 3pm on Saturday. He only asked me to ensure that no “untowardly incidents” happen at the march. But, at 8:15pm that evening, we got a call from the Police Commissioner’s office saying that our permission has been revoked due to security concerns”, said Dhillan Mowli, who was one of the coordinators of the event.

He said the event was planned to be held simultaneously in Bengaluru, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

He said that he even received a threatening phone call on Saturday evening from a member of a women’s organization in Malleswaram who allegedly said, “If we find any women wearing short or skimpy clothes, we will trash them with a broomsticks”.

He said that later he got a call from a very senior member of the ruling party who called to ask about the 'nature of this protest' and to check if it was within the purview of 'Indian culture'.

Despite all this, they abided by the police order of canceling the event and some of their volunteers were sent to the venue to inform people who were unaware of the last-minute development. “But there, the cops arrested nine of our people and they were later let off only by around 1.30pm,” said one of the coordinators.

However, he asserted that the event will definitely be organised again at a later date.

Additional commissioner of police (law and order) T. Suneel Kumar said, “We got inputs that there could be some law and order problems. Hence, we communicated to them a day in advance about the cancellation of the event”.