BJP takes out rally in Assam to protest attack on leader

The BJP took out a rally in Guwahati on Friday to protest against Wednesday's attack on its Tinsukia district president Lakheswar Moran and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, demanding action against the guilty.

Earlier, BJP state unit president Ranjit Kumar Dass had threatened to retaliate for the attack on Moran, while addressing a public meeting.

"None would be spared if lakhs of my party members come out in protest against the incident," he had said.

Around 11am on Friday, the members of the saffron party's 39 district organisations, along with the Guwahati unit, marched from their northeast office in the city to the Kamrup (Metro) district deputy commissioner's office to submit the memorandum to Sonowal.

In the memorandum, signed by BJP's Guwahati district president Bichitra Kalita, the party demanded stern action against all those who attacked Moran in Tinsukia.

The memorandum wanted the police administration to take measures so that such incidents do not recur.

Kalita alleged that "goondagiri" (hooliganism) has been going on in the state under the garb of protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The opposition Congress and the leftist organisations are "instigating certain sections to resort to attacks on the BJP workers", he alleged.

Moran sustained injuries on Wednesday when a group of unidentified men clashed with RSS activists in upper Assam.

He was rushed to hospital where he was administered first-aid and his condition was stated to be stable.

Three separate FIRs have been filed in the case by the Tinsukia district BJP president, BJP Yuva Morcha and BJP Kisan Morcha.

Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill have rocked the entire northeast, including Assam, over the past five weeks, with several organisations and political parties vehemently opposing it.

The legislation, passed by the Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to grant nationality to non-Muslims who fled religious persecution from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and entered India before December 31, 2014.