Various organisations held demonstrations across the country on Wednesday to protest against the murder of senior journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh on Tuesday evening. She was shot dead outside her home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru. She was shot at three times by the assailants, who escaped on a motorcycle.
Here is a look at some of the protests:
Protests in Karnataka:
- Bengaluru: Naik Bhavan, 8.45 am
- Dharwad: Dr Kalburgi’s house in Kalyan Nagar, 10 am
- Gadag: Thondadarya Math, 10 am
- Gulbarga: Mini Vidhan Soudha, 10.30 am
- Hubballi: Press Club, 11 am
- Mandya: Rally from Silver Jubilee Park, 10 am
- Mangaluru: India Jyothi Circle, 9 am; Town Hall, 4 pm; Deputy Commissioner’s Office, 5 pm
- Udupi: Clock Tower, 5 pm
The protests in other states:
- Ahmedabad: Sardarbag, Lal Darwaja, 4 pm
- Chandigarh: Press Club, 12 pm
- Chennai: Press Club, 11 am
- Delhi: Press Club, 11 am, 12.30 pm and 3 pm; Jantar Mantar, 12 pm
- Gorakhpur: Pant Park, 4 pm
- Hyderabad: Sunderayya Vignana Kendram, 4 pm
- Lucknow: Gandhi Statue, Hazratganj, 5 pm
- Mumbai: Amphitheater, Carter Road, Bandra, 6 pm
- Pune: SP College, Tilak Road, 4 pm
- Thiruvananthapuram: High court junction, 6 pm; Manaveeyam Veedhi, 4 pm
Known critic of the right
In November 2016, Lankesh was convicted in two separate defamation cases for her article from January 2008 criticising leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party. She was out on bail in the case.
The article was published in Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada newspaper which was published, owned and edited by her. The article alleged that BJP MP from Dharwad, Prahalad Joshi, had been directly involved in criminal activities.
Lankesh was a known critic of the right, telling Newslaundry in an interview in 2016 after her conviction that “Modi Bhakts and the Hindutva Brigade” are “keen to somehow shut me up,” adding that they would like to see her behind bars. Lankesh was the daughter of journalist and writer P Lankesh.
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