WEB DESK
Three persons died and several injured as protest against Centre’s new law on citizenship CAA swept many parts of the country
Permission for the protest was denied in almost all states but the protesters defied the police and a lockdown across Uttar Pradesh, parts of Delhi, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
In Mangaluru, where curfew has been declared, two persons were killed in police firing and 20 policemen were injured. Over 100 people were temporarily detained in Bengaluru along with historian Ramchandra Guha, who was dragged away by the police in the middle of a television interview.
In Lucknow, one person died and three others were injured.
In Delhi, hundreds including activists and opposition leaders, were temporarily taken into custody. The Delhi-Haryana border was sealed for eight hours, hitting road traffic and delaying flights.
Protests were held in 13 major cities around the country on the eighth day of unrest over the new law that’s emerging as the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since his election in 2014. The law promises citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who moved to India by 2014.
Critics say it challenges the foundations of India’s secular constitution by making religion a criterion for citizenship.
Amid the protests, BJP working president JP Nadda, after a meeting with Sikh refugees from Afghanistan, asserted that the “Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented, and so will the National Register of Citizens in future”.
In Delhi, the police temporarily took into custody protesters who were making their way to the iconic Red Fort and Mandi House — the two protest venues. Opposition leaders including D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dikshit and activists Yogendra Yadav and Umar Khalid, were among those detained.
Largescale violence took place in Uttar Pradesh, where prohibitory orders banning large gatherings were announced this morning. The police used batons to quell protests at the protest site in Lucknow, where nearly 10 vehicles were set ablaze, and in the Walled City.
Mobile internet services have been suspended in parts of Lucknow. A bus was burned at Sambhal. A protest also took place in Varanasi, the constituency of PM Modi.
Around 30,000 people took part in the protest at Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan and in Chennai, though the police had refused permission for it. Actor-politician Kamal Haasan has asked the city police “not to stifle the voice of democracy”.
In Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dared the ruling BJP to go for a UN-monitored referendum on the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Registry of Citizens. Addressing PM Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah, Ms Banerjee said, “Just because you are majority, you can’t do just about anything”.