Citizenship Amendment Bill: Assam on the boil, Internet services suspended

* Internet services suspended * Indefinite curfew clamped * Army personnel deployed

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam is on the boil on Wednesday when internet services in the Brahmaputra Valley had to be suspended for 24 hours from 7 pm. With the protest in Guwahati going violent, curfew has been clamped in the city from 6.15 pm for an indefinite period. The situation led the State Government to deploy army personnel in Guwahati city and a few districts of upper Assam from the evening. Even during the curfew period, a number of protestors took to the streets leading the security personnel to fire. Earlier in the day, a number of people were injured in tussles between police personnel and protesters in many places.

Wednesday marked thousands of people taking to the streets against the CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill) at the call of college and university students. In Guwahati, the security personnel resorted to firing in the air, teargas shelling, the firing of rubber bullets, etc without much success to bring the situation under control. Repeated attempts on the part of the security personnel to disperse the protestors went in vain in most of the areas in the city. The protestors kept Janata Bhawan seized throughout the day by staging demonstrations in front of its main gate. With Guwahati denizens joining the students, the protest turned violent. Burning if tyres and vehicles, including empty school buses, were seen in Guwahati where the protest went beyond the control.

At one time the scene in front of the Janata Bhawan in Guwahati was significant. When the gathering of protestors swelled in front of Janata Bhawan, they were encouraged by the employees of the State Secretariat by shouting slogans against the CAB from the other side of the barricades. The slogan-shouting employees of the State Secretariat were separated by the security personnel, besides the barricades. Thus the employees of the State government also registered their moral support to the anti-CAB protest.

Talking to The Sentinel, a student leader said, “We took to the streets with a view to register our protest against the CAB in a peaceful way. However, with the passage of time, especially in the afternoon, some people blended into the crowds of protestors and turned violent. The protest soon went beyond control with burning and arson marking it. We never support any violent protest.”

Even Guwahati Police Commissioner Dipak Kumar admitted that some miscreants got blended with the protesters to make the agitation violent.

Various other districts of the State also witnessed similar protests against the CAB on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Frontier Railway, which operates trains in some parts of Bihar and West Bengal besides the entire northeastern region, either cancelled or rescheduled many trains, including Humsafar Express and Kanchanjunga Express.

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