Photos show New Delhi turned into a fortress as protests sweep India

New Delhi has taken on the appearance of a fortified city as protests spread across India, with security forces deployed along major roads and barricades sealing off key public spaces. Photographs taken by The Associated Press show the capital under heavy watch, with rows of orange buses positioned along main thoroughfares and camouflaged soldiers standing beside yellow barricades well past midnight.

The barriers block every arterial road leading to Jantar Mantar, long the city's designated site for demonstrations. Police announced Monday that the location, a decades-long hub for protests in the capital, can no longer be used for rallies, and said three other sites would take its place.

The demonstrations are being led by a youth movement calling itself "Cockroach," which is pushing for a nationwide campaign against a contentious revision to India's voter list. According to AP, the changes have fueled anger directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government and at election authorities.

Barricades were also set up on Kartavya Path, the ceremonial boulevard in the heart of New Delhi, according to AP's photographs dated Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. The combination of parked buses, troops and roadblocks gave the capital the look of a city bracing for large crowds.

It was not immediately clear how long the security measures around Jantar Mantar and the other blocked routes would remain in place, or how the newly designated protest sites would be used. AP's images captured the scene overnight into Monday, as the movement's calls for a countrywide campaign continued to draw a security response in the capital.