Courtesy: Etawah's women protesters. The Uttar Pradesh Police chased and struck protesting women after breaking up an anti-CAA protest in Etawah on the intervening night of 21 and 22 January, 2020.

LUCKNOW, Uttar Pradesh — “You won’t believe this but there were a few police constables who picked up the burning logs and tried to attack the women with them,” said Shumbal, a 25-year-old college graduate, who requested that her last name not be published because she fears retaliation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh.

“The logs were not on fire but there was still smoke coming from them,” she told HuffPost India over a phone conversation, explaining that peaceful women protesters in Etawah had brought the logs to light fight fires to keep warm in the night.

“My cousin sister was hit on the head with the log. My sister was hit on the head and back with a lathi. I was hit on the back with a lathi.”

Shumbal and her 23-year-old sister Mantisha, who also requested her last name not appear for the same reason, said they had witnessed the brute force with which the Uttar Pradesh Police broke up a peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday in their hometown in Etawah district.

Their description of the event is similar to the account that women in Lucknow gave of the police constables swearing and beating them with batons after breaking up a peaceful protest in UP’s capital on 19 December.

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The BJP government in UP, led by a Hindutva headliner who calls himself Yogi Adityanath, has orchestrated the worst crackdown on people protesting against the discriminatory law that makes religion the basis of citizenship and any future plans to identify people on the basis of their faith. Thousands have been arrested in India’s most populous state. Women and children have been beaten. Activists have recounted being beaten in police custody. Several people have been killed.

This week, Adityanath said, “If anyone will raise slogans of azadi in the name of protest, it will amount to sedition and the government will take strict action.”

As women in UP continue to come out and protest, weeks after the deadliest spell of violence in the state subsided, the police is booking them for violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prohibits more than four people from assembling, and slapping them with charges such as rioting, disobeying a public order and assaulting a public officer.

Women in Lucknow, and now Etawah, are asking a pertinent question: if Section 144 is perpetually imposed in the state, then why does the UP Police let the BJP and its allies carry out rallies in favour of the CAA, while crushing all efforts to oppose it?

“We said, ‘Sir, when BJP’s rally happened then also Section 144 was in place, but you gave them security. So why are you moving us. It is our right to carry out a peaceful protest.’ We told them that we are not moving,” said Shumbal.

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In addition to the pushing, shoving, and beating, the sisters alleged that the male and female constables “touched the women in an obscene way,” and carried on doing it even after they yelled at them and complained to officials present at the protest site located near the Pachraha Kotwali in Etawah.

“I cannot even tell you the abuses they were giving,” said Shumbal. “The policemen have touched the women in an obscene way. The policewomen have also touched the women in an obscene way.”

“I was touched in an obscene way thrice, but when I fought back, they started pushing me into the police jeep,” said Mantisha. “They only stopped when many women came to my rescue.”

“It was a night from hell,” said Shumbal.