CAA protests
Jamia has been at the centre of the protests, with students clashing with police personnel on Friday.
Parts of the Capital were brought to a standstill as protesters blocked the key Mathura Road on Sunday evening. Delhi Traffic Police tweeted that vehicular movement was closed from Okhla Underpass to Sarita Vihar due to the demonstrations.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation too closed four stations along the Magenta line -- Sukhdev Vihar, Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar and Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh -- due to the protests, DMRC tweeted in the evening.
Protesters have clashed with the police in several areas of the North-east since Parliament approved the amended act earlier in the week, triggering a debate on whether grant of citizenship could be linked to religion.
In Assam, two people in Guwahati succumbed to bullet injuries sustained during protests against CAA earlier this week, taking the death toll to five, hospital officials said on Sunday. The West Bengal government, too, suspended internet services in some districts of the state as protests against the citizenship law continued for the third straight day in the state.
The protests come even as the Asom Gana Parishad (ASM) – an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam -- announced it will move the Supreme Court against the amended law.
The new law allows citizenship to migrants from Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Jain, Christian and Buddhist faiths fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It has roiled the North-east, which has for long demanded protections to safeguard its cultural identity.
In a widening rift between regional allies and the ruling BJP, Asom Gana Parishad MP Kumar Deepak Das said that the AGP respected the sentiments of the common people, who were wary that the law might threaten their identity and existence.
“We will take the legal route to seek revocation of the amended Act as the indigenous people of Assam are apprehensive that their identity, language might come under threat,” Das, a former Rajya Sabha MP, told PTI.
Bengal’s Malda, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur, Howrah and some areas in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas were the affected areas where internet services were shut down on Sunday.
Police contingents have been rushed to the troubled areas to control the situation.
Violent protests against CAA have rocked several parts of the state over the past two days with agitators torching buses, railways stations and vandalising public property.
Train movements, however, were smooth in the HowrahSealdah and Kharagpur sections, according to reports.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader and state education minister Partha Chatterjee appealed for peace and assured the protesters that the amended citizenship law will not be implemented in the state.
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu accused the ruling TMC government of doing little to control the control deteriorating law and order situation.