Several former IPS officers believe that there have been several missing links in the strategy and standard operational procedures (SOPs) applied towards dealing with Shaheen Bagh protest. What experts feel is that prolonged protest at Shaheen Bagh for months turned out to be one of the reasons behind simmering communal tension in Delhi resulting into riots.

Former Delhi Police Chief Ajai Raj Sharma had reportedly said that protesters should have been shifted to an adjoining park. Also, that the loose rope given to the protesters by the cops to block a busy road for such a long period was a wrong decision. Former top cops Prakash Singh and Vikram Singh also underlined that road blockade in Shaheen Bagh was not taken seriously by the authorities.

Loss incurred due to protest is manifold than the empirical loss that is being estimated due to so-called organic protest. In any democracy, rights of any group cannot take precedence over other and that the different organs of the democracy either failed to understand or failed to act upon in a right and time-bound manner.