Under heavy police deployment and drone surveillance, anti-CAA protests remain peaceful in capital

The protests against recent changes in the Citizenship Act continued on Friday, albeit peacefully, amid a heavy deployment of security personnel and under drone surveillance.

The day saw demonstrations outside Jama Masjid in the walled city area and at Jor Bagh in New Delhi even as a planned "gherao" of UP Bhawan by Jamia Millia Islamia students was foiled by police with protesters getting rounded up and detained soon after reaching the venue.

Cries of 'tanashahi nahi chalegi' (dictatorship will not do), 'CAA murdabad', 'Aazad ko azad karo' resonated through the day at several protest venues in Delhi.

The national capital has been seeing a slew of protests everyday against the recent changes in the law, with some of the demonstrations also entailing arson and violence, prompting police to beef up security in various vulnerable spots in the city.

Braving cold weather, hundreds of people gathered outside the iconic Jama Masjid in Old Delhi on Friday to protest against the changes in the citizenship law, that provide for Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities facing persecution on religious grounds in the three neighbouring Muslim countries.

The protestors have been opposed to the non-inclusion of Muslims of the three neighbouring countries from among the beneficiaries of the changes in the law.

Congress leader Alka Lamba and former Delhi MLA Shoaib Iqbal were among those who joined the demonstrations.

Lamba hit out at the central government, saying "unemployment is the real issue in the county, but you (PM) are trying to put people in a queue for the NRC, as it was done during demonetisation".

"It is very essential to raise the voice of democracy for the country and for the Constitution. A central government cannot become dictatorial and impose its agenda on people," she said.

The protestors, many of whom gathered after offering Friday prayers at the mosque, raised slogans against the new legislation and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

"Is desh ko NRC, NPR nahi chahiye. Is desh ko rozgaar chahiye. Is desh ko aman aur shanti chahiye (This country does not need NRC or NPR, it needs employment, peace and amity)," a protester asserted.

Carrying placards with slogans like 'Save the Constitution, don't divide India', the protesters appealed to the people to remain non-violent.

In another demonstration, hundreds of people, with their hands tied together, marched towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to demand the release of Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad and to protest the amended Citizenship Act, but they were stopped midway by police.

Amid the heavy security arrangement and drone surveillance, the protesters, including Bhim Army members, started from Dargah Shah-e-Mardan in Jor Bagh in the national capital and were stopped by police at a barricade en route the PM's residence at Lok Kalyan Marg.

Drones kept hovering over the protesters as they kept pleading with the police to allow them to march ahead.

"We are protesting after tying our hands together so that they do not attack us and lie tomorrow that we were not protesting peacefully," said Majid Jamal, one of the participants.

Wajahat Habibullah, a former chairman of the National Commission For Minorities, said the new law is against the basic principles laid down in the Constitution.

"The way people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for no fault of theirs, the government needs to remember that when the MPs we elect don't raise their voice for us, people take to streets to raise their voice for themselves," he added.

A third group of protesters, comprising students, trying to stage demonstration outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan against the alleged police atrocities in the state during the agitation over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, was detained by police.

The Jamia Coordination Committee, which comprises students from various political groups active on the campus, had called for a "gherao" of the UP Bhawan.

Meanwhile, flag marches were conducted in some areas of the North East district in the national capital and heavy police force was deployed in parts of the city ahead of the Friday prayers and protests calls by some organisations against the amended citizenship act, police said.

The police organised flag marches in North East Delhi's Seelampur, Jafrabad, Welcome and Mustafabad areas, they said.

Police said prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC, banning assembly of four or more people, have been in place in North East district, New Delhi district and the areas around the Red Fort. Barricades were also put up at various sensitive places.