ON June 18, under the banner of the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO), a militant yet peaceful public demonstration was held on the outskirts of Azad Maidan in Mumbai to express the solidarity of Mumbai’s citizens with Palestine and to demand an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Around 100 peace activists, mainly from Left and democratic political parties such as the CPI(M), CPI, and Samajwadi Party; trade unions like CITU; and women's organisations like AIDWA evaded the police dragnet and heavy deployment around Azad Maidan to hold the demonstration as planned, defying the police ban.

Acting on directives from the Fadnavis government, the police made extensive efforts to prevent the demonstration, openly refusing to grant permission. Leaders including Prakash Reddy and Charul Joshi of CPI, Shyam Gohil of CPI(ML), Hari Ghadge of CPI(M), Firoz Mithiborwala of IPSF, and Raju Korde of PWP were detained at various police stations across Mumbai.

Despite the crackdown, CPI(M) and AIPSO leaders – Vivek Monteiro, Shailendra Kamble, S K Rege, Advocate Armaity Irani, Chandrakant Bhojgar, Sugandhi Francis, Rekha Deshpande, Sangita Kamble, and others evaded the dragnet and successfully reached the venue and led the protest under the banner of AIPSO as scheduled at 3:30 p.m. in the ENSA compound, outside the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh and Press Club, Azad Maidan.

The demonstration lasted for about 30 minutes as planned, and featured powerful slogans such as "Palestine-Bharat Maitri Zindabad," "Israel ka Narsanhar Band Karo," "Netanyahu ki Hitlershahi Nahin Chalegi," "Stop the Genocide in Gaza," and "Trump-Netanyahu Murdabad." Following the demonstration, all participating activists were arrested.