Mangaluru: Even before they could gather at Mumbai’s Chaityabhoomi, where student-led agitators had planned to protest on Monday (July 20), police indiscriminately rounded up and detained over 300 protesters across different police stations in the city. Among those detained were minor girls and boys participating in the protest.Several protestors The Wire spoke to were still at the police stations well beyond 10 pm.A school-going boy, who was attending the protest along with his 19-year-old brother, spoke to The Wire from the Worli police station. “This is the first time that my brother and I have set out for a protest. Within minutes of reaching the Shivaji Park area, we were detained,” the 11-year-old told The Wire. The boys had travelled from Mumbai’s suburbs and were detained at the Worli police station until around 8:30 pm.The call for the protest in Mumbai today was given by left-wing students’ groups to demand Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and timed to coincide with the Cockroach Janta Party’s march to parliament in Delhi.Police confirmed on Monday evening that officers at the Shivaji Park station are in the process of registering FIRs against those who participated in the protest. “No permission is granted for holding any protest at Chaityabhoomi,” they said.The Mumbai police meanwhile invoked its powers under the Maharashtra Police Act to prohibit assemblies of five or more people in the city from Thursday through August 6, citing apprehension of “likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquility” in addition to “grave danger to human lives and loss of properties”.Protesters on Monday said they were randomly picked up and taken to different police stations. Their phone numbers and addresses were noted, and in some cases, photos were taken, some of the detainees told The Wire.सलाम..❤️ही महाराष्ट्राची वाघीण आहे.स्थळ – मुंबई . pic.twitter.com/ZvTGkBx78f— Mohasin (@mohasinspeaks) July 20, 2026Several protesters The Wire spoke to said they were concerned that they were being profiled by the police. “Most of us are still studying. We have no idea what the police plan to do with our details,” a young protestor, whose photos and details were recorded by the Worli police station, said.Sameer, an activist associated with the Mumbai for Peace collective who was detained at the Mahim police station, said that he was not even participating in the protest but merely passing by. “I saw some small groups protesting outside the Plaza theatre and began to take pictures. The next thing I know, I am dragged into the police van and taken to the police station,” Sameer claimed.He added that two school-going girls, evidently underage, were also among those detained and kept at the police station.At the Sion police station, the police had detained around 41 persons, who were released around 9 pm, confirmed Mahendra More, a policeman at the station. Over 50 others were detained at the Mahim police station.The Wire contacted assistant commissioner of police (Bhoiwada division) Ghanshyam Palange, who claimed that the police were conducting “inquiries” and had yet to make a decision about the protesters’ release. At the time of publishing this report, around 10 pm, at least 23 young men, mostly college students, were still detained at the Bhoiwada police station.Security personnel corral protesters into their bus. Photo by arrangement.Several protesters claimed that their phones were confiscated and data was also transferred from their phones. Rights activist Firoze Mithiborewala, who was detained at the Mahim police station, said the police didn’t explain the reasons for their detention and simply kept people at the station for hours. The young girls detained at the Mahim police station, he claimed, were undeterred, and continued to raise slogans.“The Gen-Z is unfazed by the police. At the police station, it was these young children who were asking questions and they refused to leave until the police had let every detained person go. Most of these kids came from Muslim localities and are fully aware of the price they will have to pay for participating in a protest. But they are unstoppable now,” he said.Several activists were picked up from their offices and residences. Aamir Kazi, Maharashtra state joint secretary and Mumbai president of the All India Students’ Federation, was picked up from his office around 1 pm and kept at the police station for over seven hours. His phone, too, was confiscated.“And all this happened without any official letter or warrant. The police refused to even explain why I was being detained,” Kazi claimed.Another senior environmental activist, Alex D’souza, was called to the Goregaon police station and detained for several hours. “I was just about to board a train from Goregaon station when I received a call from the police station. I ended up there for four hours,” he said.In response to the violence unleashed on protestors in New Delhi, another protest has been organised in the city tomorrow. The police, protesters say, were demanding information about the protest planned for tomorrow and were trying to deter them from gathering at Azad Maidan, the designated protest site in south Mumbai, tomorrow.