Ansar Rally Report
by Rochester IMC Sunday March 14, 2004 at 09:54 PM

On Saturday, March 13th, concerned citizens from across New York State converged at the INS detention center in Batavia to demand the release of Ansar Mahmood.

On Saturday, March 13th, concerned citizens from across New York State converged at the INS detention center in Batavia to demand the release of Ansar Mahmood.

The crowd numbered about 60 people, and sounded more like several hundred while yelling chants of "Free Ansar!" "Defend our Civil Rights!" and "No Justice, No Peace - Till Ansar's Released."

The protest drew people from several different regions of New York State. The majority of the protesters came from Rochester, joined by 20-30 people from Hudson Valley, New York City, Batavia and Albany. "It's important for us who work in different parts to connect. It gives you energy," commented Susan Davies of the Chatham Peace Initiative.

Speakers at the rally included Reverand Richard Rose of the First Baptist Church in Batavia; Aarti Shahani, Subhash Kateel of the New York City based Families for Freedom; Barbara deLeeuw of the Genesee Valley Civil Liberties Union; Rajesh Barnabas, a Rochester activist and organizer of several rallies to free Ansar; and Susan Davies and Bob Elmendorf of the Chatham Peace Initiative. In addition the Rochester Raging Grannies and folk singer Sheri Bauer-Mayorja performed at the rally.

Several corporate media outlets were present at the rally, including channel 8 news and the Democrat and Chronicle. Bringing the media to the Batavia detention center was one of the goals of the protest, since INS detention centers generally like to stay out of the public eye. "The attention makes them nervous," Davies said.

Four people went inside the detention center to talk with Ansar and relay his feelings to the crowd. Those that did said that Ansar was thankful for all the support that he'd received and that he wanted to convey that the issue was bigger than just his case.

Subash Kateel, an organizer for Families for Freedom, said, "[Ansar] feels really, really, grateful that so many people came out and supported him over the last two years. He wanted to highlite that his situation is not as bad as others in there." Kateel added, "there's been 1 million Ansars [detained] since 1996."

Davies told the crowd that Ansar loves to receive letters and will respond to any that get sent to him.

After the protests many activists went into the town of Batavia to eating lunch before moving on. This spontaneous gathering turned into a networking opportunity as activists from across the state got a chance to discuss the work they were doing locally and to discuss Ansar's situation.