Protests rage in W Bengal, curfew eased in Assam
   Date :17-Dec-2019

Protests rage in W Bengal
 Members of All Assam Students Union along with local people stage a ‘Gana Satyagrah’ protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), in Dibrugarh on Monday. (PTI)
 
 
KOLKATA/GUWAHATI :
 
TEMPERS ran high in West Bengal for the fourth day on Monday over the new citizenship law, with many highways and railway lines blocked by protesters amid reports of arson, loot and attacks on policemen. Assam, the gateway to the north-east, where the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which has now been signed into law by the President, first ignited public fury, is calm with curfew relaxed and people going about their lives normally.
 
However, peaceful protests are continuing in Guwahati and other places. Internet services continued to remain suspended in six districts of the West Bengal -- Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and parts of South 24 Parganas districts -- where violent protests over the amended Act have brought life to a screeching halt. Agitators have blocked thoroughfares, set fire to tyres, staged sit-ins on highways in several districts of the state, including Murshidabad and East Midnapore, inconveniencing thousands of commuters. Several trains have been cancelled or delayed due to the ongoing protests. A spokesperson for the railways said demonstrators have blocked the tracks on Sealdah-Diamond Harbour and Sealdah- Namkhana sections.
 
Efforts were being made to disperse the mob, he added. The law and order situation, however, improved in Assam, with the administration relaxing curfew from 6 am to 9 pm in Guwahati, the epicentre of the anti-Citizenship Act protests. Night curfew in Guwahati, however, will continue to be in force, a senior police officer said. “The situation having improved considerably, the day curfew is being withdrawn from Guwahati from 6AM of December 16th.
 
Night curfew would remain from 9 PM till 6 AM next day,” Assam’s Additional DGP (law and order) G P Singh tweeted. In Dibrugarh district, where curfew has been eased between 6 am to 8 pm, the administration has warned people against holding protest meets without permission beyond 3 pm. The measure was being taken to “prevent anti-social elements from mingling with the common people after dark,” a senior district official said. Students’ organisation Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) has launched an indefinite hunger strike in the state to protest against the law.
 
 
Students’ protests spread to UP
 
LUCKNOW/ALIGARH :
 
PROTESTS against the amended Citizenship Act engulfed new areas in Uttar Pradesh on Monday with students hurling stones at police at a Islamic seminary in Lucknow and shouting slogans at BHU in Varanasi. The authorities reacted with arrests of 21 persons in Aligarh and suspension of Internet services in three sensitive districts. UP Police Chief O P Singh told PTI that Internet services in Aligarh, Saharanpur and Meerut were suspended amid the protests spreading to new areas.
 
In Aligarh, 21 people were arrested for allegedly fomenting trouble in Aligarh Muslim University on Sunday night that led to students clashing with police and closure of the varsity till January 5. A day after AMU students clashed with police against the amended law, students of Islamic Seminary Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow’s Gudamba area joined the protest on Monday in solidarity with the agitating AMU and Jamia Milia students. The Islamic seminary students on Monday morning sought to hit streets to protest against the amended law, but were barred by the police from stepping out, prompting students to pelt stones at police guarding the seminary gates.
 
Meanwhile, the BJP’s Delhi unit filed a complaint with police against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders accusing them of “inciting” Sunday’s violence during a protest over citizenship law near Jamia Millia Islamia. Situation tense in Jamia Millia Islamia: “I FEEL unsafe in my campus and want to head home”, said Umar Ashraf, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia, as he stood outside one of the gates of the varsity holding a banner, “Not safe in my university”. Ashraf is one of the thousand students who is leaving the university campus following the police action on students on Sunday, in which they entered campus and allegedly lathicharged students and used tear-gas shells. Many of the students who spoke did not wish to be identified and were scared of the situation prevailing in the university.