Photos: Thousands detained in police crackdown on India’s youth protest

Demonstrators intercepted and detained as authorities crack down on ‘cockroach’ movement rally in central New Delhi.

Policewomen try to stop a detained protester escaping from a bus during a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party seeking the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, near the protest site in New Delhi, India. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Thousands of people were detained across New Delhi on Saturday as Indian authorities mounted a sweeping security operation to stop a protest by the youth-led “cockroach” movement demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief.

Police fanned out across India’s capital to block access to Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site, stopping buses and cars at checkpoints, erecting barricades and deploying antiriot vehicles equipped with tear gas launchers along key routes.

Many demonstrators were intercepted long before they reached central New Delhi, chased away or dragged into police vehicles and taken to temporary detention centres. Several movement leaders, opposition lawmakers and student activists were detained en route, effectively halting the rally before it began.

Authorities said they had denied permission for the gathering because the request was submitted late and insisted the measures were necessary to maintain order. Sambit Patra, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, dismissed the protesters as “anarchic elements” staging a “flop show”.

Despite the clampdown, some protesters broke through police cordons, chanting slogans against Modi and the Election Commission of India (ECI), before being detained. “We are a democracy, yet peaceful protests are being crushed by force,” said college student Tanya Negi, who travelled from Mumbai. “Why is Modi afraid of India’s young people?”

The movement led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) emerged online in May and gained prominence through protests over exam paper leaks that led to the resignation of Modi’s education minister in July.

Its latest campaign targets the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which opposition parties say has already removed more than 130 million names from voter rolls and disenfranchised supporters.

The ECI and the government deny any political bias, but critics say the crackdown highlights shrinking space for dissent as key state polls approach.

Police detained more than 2,000 people, including opposition politicians, journalists and lawyers. [AP Photo]

Protesters were demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of the voters’ list they say disproportionately benefits the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [Vipin/AP Photo]

Protesters accuse the BJP of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list to sway results, and opposition parties say the revisions affected several recent state elections the party won, casting a shadow over polls in the world’s largest democracy. [Manish Swarup/AP Photo]

The CJP had planned to gather thousands of people at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in central New Delhi. But on Saturday, the area was sealed off by security forces before the demonstration began. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Security forces set up checkpoints on main roads and entry points across the city of 20 million people, boarded buses searching for protesters and inspected vehicles. [Priyanshu Singh/Reuters]

Barricades and concrete blocks disrupted traffic, while antiriot vehicles equipped with tear gas launchers guarded key routes. [Priyanshu Singh/Reuters]

Despite detentions of the founders of the youth movement, small protests took place elsewhere in the city, including at the popular crafts market Dilli Haat. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

The protests represent one of the most serious tests yet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and intensified after The Indian Express daily reported recently that two election commissioners had questioned CEC Kumar’s revisions that removed roughly 130 million names from the voters’ list. [Adnan Abidi /Reuters]

Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city on Saturday, as mobile internet services were suspended in the central business district. Dozens of Delhi Metro stations and markets were also shut. [AP Photo]

新德里市中心，当局镇压“蟑螂运动”集会，示威者遭到拦截和拘留。

在印度新德里，蟑螂人民党举行抗议活动，要求印度首席选举专员贾内什·库马尔辞职。抗议期间，女警试图阻止一名被拘留的抗议者从巴士上逃脱。[阿德南·阿比迪/路透社]

周六，印度当局在新德里展开大规模安全行动，以阻止由青年领导的“蟑螂”运动的抗议活动。该运动要求印度选举委员会主席辞职。数千人被拘留。

印度首都警方展开大规模行动，封锁了前往指定抗议地点简塔曼塔天文台的道路，在检查站拦截公共汽车和汽车，设置路障，并在主要道路上部署配备催泪瓦斯发射器的防暴车辆。

许多示威者在抵达新德里市中心之前就被拦截，遭到驱赶或被强行塞进警车，送往临时拘留中心。多名运动领袖、反对派议员和学生积极分子在途中被拘留，导致集会实际上在开始前就被叫停。

当局表示，他们拒绝批准此次集会是因为申请提交过晚，并坚称这些措施对于维护秩序是必要的。印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪领导的印度人民党发言人桑比特·帕特拉则斥责抗议者是“无政府主义分子”，并称他们的行为是一场“拙劣的闹剧”。

尽管警方采取了镇压措施，一些抗议者仍突破了警戒线，高喊反对莫迪和印度选举委员会的口号，随后被拘留。“我们生活在民主国家，但和平抗议却遭到武力镇压，”来自孟买的大学生坦娅·内吉说道，“莫迪为什么害怕印度的年轻人？”

由蟑螂人民党（CJP）领导的这场运动于 5 月在网上兴起，并通过抗议考试试卷泄露事件而声名鹊起，最终导致莫迪的教育部长于 7 月辞职。

该组织的最新运动针对的是印度选举委员会的特别强化修订（SIR），反对党称该修订已从选民名册中删除了超过 1.3 亿个名字，并剥夺了支持者的选举权。

印度选举委员会和政府否认存在任何政治偏见，但批评人士表示，随着关键邦选举的临近，此次镇压凸显了异议空间的日益萎缩。

警方拘留了2000多人，其中包括反对派政治人士、记者和律师。[美联社照片]

抗议者要求首席选举专员吉亚内什·库马尔辞职，原因是他们认为选民名单的修订对执政的印度人民党（BJP）造成了不成比例的利益增长。[Vipin/AP Photo]

抗议者指责印度人民党利用选民名单的“特别强化修订”（SIR）来操纵选举结果，反对党则表示，这些修订影响了该党近期赢得的几场邦选举，给这个世界最大民主国家的选举蒙上了阴影。[Manish Swarup/AP Photo]

正义与进步中心（CJP）原计划在新德里市中心的指定抗议地点简塔·曼塔天文台（Jantar Mantar）集结数千人。但周六，在示威活动开始前，该区域已被安全部队封锁。[阿德南·阿比迪/路透社]

安全部队在拥有2000万人口的伊斯坦布尔市的主要道路和入口处设立检查站，登上公交车搜寻示威者并检查车辆。[Priyanshu Singh/路透社]

路障和混凝土路障阻碍了交通，配备催泪瓦斯发射器的防暴车辆守卫着主要道路。[Priyanshu Singh/路透社]

尽管青年运动的发起人被拘留，但城内其他地方仍爆发了小规模抗议活动，包括在颇受欢迎的工艺品市场德里哈特。[阿德南·阿比迪/路透社]

这些抗议活动是对印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪迄今为止面临的最严峻考验之一，此前《印度快报》报道称，两名选举专员对首席选举专员库马尔的选民名单修订提出质疑，该修订删除了约1.3亿个选民姓名，此后抗议活动愈演愈烈。[阿德南·阿比迪/路透社]

周六，数千名警察和准军事人员部署在德里各处，中央商务区的移动互联网服务也被暂停。数十个德里地铁站和市场也关闭了。[美联社照片]