Protests rage on in Assam over Citizenship Bill

Guwahati, Jan 20: Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill showed no sign of waning in Assam on Saturday as agitators staged semi-clad protests in Texpur, took out women's rally in Tinsukia, and organised citizen's meeting in Guwahati.

In Tezpur town of Sonitpur district in lower Assam, activists of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) staged a semi-clad protest. Shirtless male members of the organisation demonstrated with messages painted on bare bodies as they took out a massive rally through the main thoroughfares demanding the Bill be scrapped immediately.

Protesting in front of the deputy commissioners office, the demonstrators raised slogans against Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

They also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi explain to them how the people of Assam and the country benefited from demonetisation.

In Tinsukia district of upper Assam, women came together to take out a protest rally and also blocked National Highway 37 for some time.

In Guwahati, a citizens' protest meeting was organised in which prominent personalities from the Assam Sahitya Sabha, AJYCP, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), among others, spoke against the Bill and demanded that it be scrapped.

The controversial bill, passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years, which is the norm currently, even if they do not possess any document.