Assam: Security beefed up as organizations protest Citizenship Bill
(Sourced from PTI)
Prohibitory orders were clamped in three police districts of Guwahati and security beefed up in view of the Assam Secretariat gherao program called by several organizations today against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Barricades were placed around the Secretariat and Assam Police and CRPF forces were deployed in large numbers to prevent the protesters from staging their Sankalpa Shikha Jatra against the Bill.
The 'Janata Bhawan Gherao' called by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a peasant organization, and Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP), a student organization, was likely to see the participation of 68 other organizations from other parts of the state during the day.
KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi along with members of 70 organizations staged a protest meeting on the premises of the Dispur Press Club, adjacent to the Secretariat, accusing the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government of working against the interests of indigenous people of the state by supporting the bill. The bill threatens the identity, language, and culture of the indigenous people of Assam, he charged.
Stating that the organizers had prior police permission for holding the meeting, the speakers at the meeting accused the administration of imposing the prohibitory order "to muzzle the democratic voice of the citizens". Accusing the Chief Minister of functioning "under the orders of the RSS", the speakers urged Sonowal to "give up his Hitlerian rule as it was against the people of Assam".
Bike-rallies from Jonai, Diphu, Sadiya, and Dhubri were allowed to proceed to Guwahati one at a time as permission for today's meeting was given for a gathering of 1,000 people and the number had already exceeded. Protesters traveling from Sadia, Dhubri, and Diphu by trains to participate in the protest alleged that they weren't allowed to board trains and were detained from proceeding further.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. Groups, organizations in the northeast and leading political party AGP, an ally of the ruling-BJP, are opposed to the bill saying it'll nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of illegal-immigrants irrespective of religion.
