Official statement regarding the protest on 9/6/2012

First of all we would like to congratulate EVERY single person who showed up on the streets and protested for YOUR freedom of expression. All of them showed exceptional strength and courage and stood up for their rights when they were opposed, also we have not heard even a single incident of the protesters using any form of violence. This indeed gives hope that, the people are willing to trust in an idea and let it speak for them.

We here at anonymous believe in unbiased reports and talk compiled from several of our opinions, hence that is the reason for this statement. We will be pointing out where we did really well and also were we could have done better and areas that need improvement.

Below are a few clarifications from our side.

First of all we would like the media to stop using the term “hackers” to refer to the protesters.The protesters were from all walks of life and most have nothing to do with “hacking”.Our  hackers were a very small fraction of the actual protests. We had simply facilitated them with information and provided with a loose structure so that different location's are synchronized. The main work of organizing, getting police permission and making posters and flyers was done by the organizers of the individual events.

There seems to be much confusion on what happened in these following areas. Hence we are clarifying them

Kolkata: The police was ready even before the protesters had arrived. Though about 200 people showed up most fled when they saw the police and the remaining few had to fight with the police to get 20 minutes to protest and quickly left. We would like to thank the brave people who stood their ground and protested even when faced with opposition.While interrogating them the police also had collected their mobile numbers and personal information and later called them up to ask  questions like "how long have you been gathering online to make protests?"...Here is blog post about it http://rohinikejriwal.blogspot.in/2012/06/day-161366.html... Enuff said

Cochin: The protest went peacefully and the protesters managed to get good attention from the public. There were reports that about 6 people were arrested after the protests.What really happened was the police took them to the police station for a routine questioning and then soon let them off

Hyderabad: The protesters were all set to protest in Necklace Road but the police refused to let them protest there and threatened them by saying“You people gathering is harmful.. Go away or we'll call police force”. Finally after much negotiation they came to an agreement that they would shift the protest to Indra Park. It became a sort of bike rally the whole way and they probably got more attention from the people than originally intended #NoobPoliceGotTrolled  :D

Pune:Though there were no problems during the actual protests.The police had earlier refused to give them permission to protest anywhere in the city because the President Pratibha Patil was on a visit to Pune.The protesters went ahead with the protests anyway..

All other protests went on really well without any serious problems. Please view the individual event pages for pictures and details. http://opindia.posterous.com/anonymous-to-stage-street-protest-on-9th-june

Suggestion and things to remember for the next protest:

• Not everybody who says they will go will actually go (many of us suspected this from the very beginning)
• Occupy protests are not for people who run away in the first sight of police presence.Please DO NOT COME if you are scared of them... A SINGLE dedicated person is more effective than a thousand deserters.
• Though English is our main operational language we have come to understand that, in order to reach more local people in a diverse country like India, we need to have fliers in the local languages of the areas.
• We need to learn to organize things in a systematic manner like getting police permissions etc
• A lot of thinking and planning are needed for deciding a place for protests.And once a location is fixed, it should NOT be changed as this creates a lot of confusion. We had incidents of people going to the old locations and on finding nobody there left without participating.
• We heard reports that miscreants were making cat calls and teasing some the women present. If any such incidents happen and the police are not helping in dealing the problem quickly snap out your cell phone and take a picture of them ,and if applicable vehicle numbers and send it to us. And we will take care of the rest *evil grin*  
• Each group should try to get atleast one lawyer to support them and who can talk to the police if they give any problems.
•  Event pages should make it very clear that people who click on “attending” are actually serious about it.(NO more fake people)

For people who said we did not get enough supporters:

An unstructured group like anonymous brings forth it's own problems one of which is that we will never be able to exactly determine how many people are attending. Though the suggestions mentioned above will help us to come up with a more accurate value next time. Eventhough this is the first time we have organized such a protest in India, we did really good.

Also in reply to the trolls that keep pointing that we didn't have a good turnout in many places. Our objectives were never much about how many people we get; it was about how many people we reached, and we believe all the protesters did a damn good job at that. :D kudos to you all

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Free Sofware Movement and all other groups that came forward to organize and help with the protests. Though we might have a few differences of opinions, we should put them aside and work together towards the common goal.

Again we would like to thank every single man, woman and child that stood with us and helped us make this occupy movement a great success. Stay tuned for the next event details.

PS: Fellow protesters, please point out if we missed out anything or made any errors with the details.And give your suggestions for the next protest in the comments section.

Thank you!

We are anonymous

We are a Legion

We do not forgive

We do not forget

EXPECT US