Mahesh Bhatt To Swara Bhasker, Celebs Join Twitter Rally To Demand The Release Of Sadaf Jafar

On Dec 19, Sadaf Jafaf, a well-known social and political activist as well as former teacher Sadaf Jafar was protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens in a Lucknow neighbourhood, when she went live on Facebook from the protest.?

Jafar, who is also a Congress spokesperson, was arrested while she was live on the social media platform after the rally had gone violent.

In the wake of the same, a section of Twitter users that included Bollywood celebrities demanded her release. #FreeSadaf trended on Twitter with 16.5K tweets.

Congress tweeted from their official handle, "We demand the immediate release of social activist Sadaf Jafar, who has been under arrest for the last 14 days by the UP police. #FreeSadaf."

Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt tweeted, "If the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live, you are a subject & not a citizen. Without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense. #FreeSadaf."

Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker who has been quite actively voicing out her opinions on CAA and NRC also demanded Sadaf Jafar's release. She tweeted, "Activist and actor #sadafjafar is in jail in Lucknow.. not clear why! Her friends #DeepakKabir is also in jail because he went to enquire after her.. #FreeSadaf #FreeDeepak and make UP police accountable for its excesses!"

Actor Sushant Singh wrote on Twitter, "Arrested, beaten and tortured for questioning @Uppolice during a FB live broadcast. #FreeSadaf Actress-Activist Arrested During Facebook Live, Lucknow Cops Deny Assault."

Sadaf Jafar, before getting arrested, showed the protest going violent in her Facebook live videos. "Son, don’t go there. Please don’t. You will get hurt. Come over here. They are not protesters, they are hired rioters," she tells a protester in a video. In another video, she tells media persons to show the faces of the rioters. In another video, she is trying to resist her arrest, when she says, “I am being arrested.”

The protest had suddenly turned violent. So much so, that public property was set on fire that included a bus and a car being burnt. The police says that the protesters had turned violent.?