Former cop Abdur Rahman prevented from speaking at AMU

Former cop Abdur Rahman

Ex-IPS officer and former Special Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abdur Rahman who was in Aligarh to address a protest at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), was detained at the Lodha Police Station in Aligarh and asked to return to New Delhi. He was invited there by the AMU Students Co-ordination Committee to educate them on the new legislation.

While on way to AMU to address a student protest, local police and administration stopped and detained me for one and half hour at Lodha PS,15 km before Aligarh. No freedom of speech and expression in UP.#indiarejectscaa_nrc_npr pic.twitter.com/GD37RpdSqR
— Abdur Rahman (@AbdurRahman_IPS) February 2, 2020

He told reporters that he was served a notice by the police that his presence at the AMU could result in a law and order problem. He said that he had decided to comply with the orders and that he “would come back” again once he received the permission to do so.

Before leaving Aligarh he told reporters, “I agreed to return because I am a law-abiding citizen and my purpose to visit the AMU was only to speak on the CAA and not provoke any trouble.”

The police had told him that he being at AMU could be misused as an excuse to instigate trouble on the campus.

Rahman had quit last year, in an act of ‘civil disobedience’ against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In his statement he had said, “This bill is against the religious pluralism of India. I request all justice loving people to oppose the Bill in a democratic manner. It runs against the very basic feature of the Constitution. In civil disobedience, I have decided not to attend office from tomorrow. I am finally quitting the service.”

Responding to the incident, former AMU Students’ Union President Faizul Hassan said that he believed the local administration wanted to stop the movement against the CAA-NPR-NRC by not allowing any guest to visit the university. The Times of India reported him as saying, “This government doesn’t want anyone to express their opinion about CAA in the campus,” further adding that former union minister Yashwant Sinha and even ex-IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan were stopped from entering the university.