Nationwide protests continue; 1000s booked
NEW DELHI: Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) continued Friday, even as clashes between police personnel and protestors intensified in different places across the country.
In Madhya Pradesh, peaceful protests were held in many cities, including Ujjain, Damoh and Rajgarh, but violence broke out in parts of Jabalpur city due to which curfew was imposed.
Mobile Internet services were suspended in Jabalpur, Bhopal and Indore, after protesters pelted stones at police in Jabalpur, surrounding a policeman and breaking the glass panes of a police vehicle. At least six cops were injured in the protests.
Tamil Nadu police on Friday slapped cases against 3,637 persons who had protested on Thursday at Valluvar Kottam defying prohibitory orders. Among those booked include renowned Carnatic singer TM Krishna, actor Siddharth and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) president and Chidambaram LS constituency Parliamentarian Thol Thirumavalavan.
On Thursday, TM Krishna had slammed the Centre for “try
IN GUJARAT’S RAJKOT, SEC 144 HAS BEEN IMPOSED TILL JAN 1; CASES SLAPPED AGAINST OVER 3,500 IN TAMIL NADU’S CHENNAI
ing to divide the nation in the name of religion.”
The police also booked Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) leader MH Jawahirullah for attempting to picket chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s house on Wednesday together with 3000 party workers. Around 37 students of Periyar Student’s Forum were booked for blocking a road during an agitation in Nungambakkam on Friday.
Several students of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Loyola College and Madras University, as well as civil society groups, have been protesting police violence against students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, in the past week.
In Odisha, over a hundred students staged an anti-CAA demonstration on Friday.
The Gujarat government on Friday imposed Section 144, which prohibits an assembly of more than 4 people in an area, in Rajkot till January 1, 2020.
Earlier in the day, Gujarat police registered an FIR against 3,022 people on the charges of rioting, assault and criminal conspiracy for protesting against the newly-amended citizenship law in Banaskantha.
STATES’ RESPONSE
As a fallout to the nationwide protests, at least eight states have come out against the CAA. Rajasthan along with at least seven other states, including the NDA-ruled Bihar, will not implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday.
Gehlot said more than eight states including West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh would not implement the amended act. “I have said several times that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and NRC cannot be implemented across the country because they are not practical...” Gehlot tweeted.
The Kerala government on Friday said it has ordered a stay on all activities in connection with the National Population Register (NPR) in the state considering apprehensions of public that it would lead to NRC in the wake of the controversial citizenship act.
Earlier this week, the West Bengal government stayed all activities relating to the preparation and updation of the NPR in the eastern state amid the furore over the CAA.