4 detained for waving Palestinian flag during Pak-Bangladesh match in Kolkata: Cops

PTI, Nov 1, 2023, 10:15 AM IST

Kolkata: Four people were detained for waving the Palestinian flag during the Pakistan-Bangladesh World Cup cricket match at Eden Gardens stadium on Tuesday, police said.

Two of them are residents of Jharkhand, while the other two are from Kolkata’s Ekbalpore and neighbouring Howrah, a senior police officer said.

“We have detained two of them for waving the Palestinian flag near gate number 6 and the other two at Block G1. We are trying to find out their motive,” the IPS officer told PTI.

The four were detained by law enforcers from Maidan police station and they were being questioned, he added.

“Policemen posted there at first could not understand what the protesters were up to. Then they waved the flag of Palestine and were detained. They, however, did not raise any slogan,” he elaborated.

Sources in the Kolkata Police said that the initial probe found out that the four people, who are in their mid-twenties, were protesting the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and chose the international match for their stir.