India's Cockroach Movement Says Founder Abhijeet Dipke Was Taken By Police

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing AFP, India's Cockroach Movement said on Monday that its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, was taken by police. Tens of thousands of supporters of the young people-led protest group gathered in New Delhi on Monday, defying police refusal to grant a demonstration permit, and were dispersed with batons and tear gas as they tried to march to parliament to demand the education minister's resignation. The protests began in May after a national medical entrance exam question paper leak that affected more than 2 million candidates, and have since broadened over high youth unemployment, becoming what the movement says is India's largest civilian challenge yet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term. The group wrote on X that police had attacked peaceful demonstrators, while 18-year-old Sumit Kumar told AFP that the country should have a government that listens to young people and corrects its mistakes. Opposition lawmakers also backed the students' demands and said they would question the Modi government when parliament reconvened on Monday over alleged corruption involving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's flagship Ram Temple project in Ayodhya.