Members of Assamese community protest against Citizenship Act

A group of city residents who hail from Assam staged a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act here on Saturday.

The protest was held at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.

The participants carried placards, banners and handbills with messages 'Say No to CAB', 'We oppose CAA' and 'Withdraw CAA, Save Assam'.

The contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) was passed by both houses of Parliament and received President's assent earlier this week.

The amended act provides for grant of citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who migrated to India before 2015 due to religious persecution.

"We are fighting over the issue of foreigners (settling down in Assam) for the last many years and now with this act, the situation will worsen. If we gave shelter to more foreigners, Assamese citizens will suffer," said one protester.

"We took in everyone who came before 1971, they took our place, now we are left with nothing," he said.

Actor-model Dipannita Sharma, who took part in the protest, tweeted, "As much as we are against the CAB, we are also pro-peace, pro-non-violence and for resumption of normal life in Assam.

"CAB is an act now. This is against our cultural identity. As we are smiling and welcoming people, they took disadvantage of it," another protester said.

Saying that the issue was not about Hindu-Muslim divide, he said more than one crore Bangladeshi nationals were living in Assam and the state can not accommodate more migrants.

Violent protests erupted in Assam and other parts of the North East after the CAB became law.