New Delhi: Bilkis Dadi, the octogenarian who was the face of the months-long anti-citizenship law protest in the national capital and featured in the Time magazine, was on Tuesday stopped by Delhi Police personnel at the Singhu Border where thousands of farmers have been demonstrating against the centre’s new farm laws, officials said.
Bilkis, popularly known as the Shaheen Bagh Dadi, had expressed her willingness to join the farmers’ protest at the Delhi-Haryana border at Singhu.
Soon after she reached the border point to extend her support to the agitating farmers, she was stopped by Delhi Police personnel at the border.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Gaurav Sharma said, “She is a senior citizen and due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we stopped her at the Singhu Border and requested her to return for her own safety and betterment”.
“To avoid any kind of any inconvenience to her, she was escorted by the police team to her home in southeast Delhi,” he said.
Bilkis shot into limelight last year during the months-long anti-citizenship law protest at Shaheen Bagh here and was also recognised by the American weekly Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020 along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bollywood actor Ayushman Khurrana.
During the protest which began in December last year, the 82-year-old sat under a tent with hundreds of women and children, braving the extremely cold weather. She emerged as the face of the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens.
The protest at Shaheen Bagh ended in March this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also read: Shaheen Bagh ‘dadi’ Bilkis Bano, three other Indians in BBC’s 2020 list of inspiring women