Massive protests across Assam against Citizenship Bill

Large-scale protests took place across Assam today against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 with a number groups burning the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, taking out processions and blocking rail and road traffic.

The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP) burnt the effigies of Modi, Singh and Sonowal at Nalbari.

The members of the All Assam Sutia Students' Union blocked the rail traffic at Sarupathar, prompting the police to detain a number of agitators, an official said.

Thousands of slogan-shouting protestors, carrying banners against the bill, marched through towns across the state, before submitting memoranda addressed to the prime minister to the respective district deputy commissioners.

The agitators shouted slogans refusing to take the "burden of foreigners" and criticised the BJP-led government in the state for supporting the Centre's attempt to amend the bill, which they described as "a destroyer of ethnicity, culture and language of the local indigenous people of Assam".

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) took out processions at many places across the state against the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which proposes to give citizenship to non-Muslims from neighbouring countries.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters, "There is a continuous people's movement against the bill. Organisations, individuals and various other forums have united as the proposed bill will cause a great damage to Assam's political future and the survival of its indigenous people, their identity, culture and land."
On the bill, he said, "Let us wait till June 30, when the final draft of the NRC will be published. We will make our stand public after that."