Citizenship (Amendment) Act: Assam peaceful, thousands defy curfew to join Aasu’s Guwahati stir

GUWAHATI/SHILLONG: Assam, the epicentre of anti-CAB protests, was calm on Friday after two days of violence but neighbouring Meghalaya saw thousands of demonstrators assembling outside the Governor’s House in Shillong to demand his assent to an ordinance that makes registration for people intending to visit the hill state mandatory.
In Shillong, protesters set ablaze a vehicle parked inside the nearby Youth Hostel and also damaged a windshield of a fire tender of the Meghalaya Police.Police had to fire teargas shells to disperse the agitators.
The only major protest of the day in Assam was in Guwahati, the main theatre of violence, where thousands of students, senior citizens, artistes, teachers, sat on a a hunger strike organized by the Aasu. “We will never accept and allow this Act to be implemented in Assam. We have moved a challenge petition in the Supreme Court today,” said Aasu chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya, while announcing a weeklong agitation, including a protest, by the Assamese diaspora in London on Friday.
In Guwahati, curfew is still on and mobile internet suspended. The Army patrolled the disturbed areas during the day.
In Arunachal Pradesh, hundreds of students and civilians took out a protest rally opposing the passage of the bill in both houses of Parliament. The students boycotted their ongoing examinations to take part in the agitation. Chief minister Pema Khandu directed the state chief secretary and the DGP to ensure strict checking of inner line permits at all check gates across the state.
Though there was no report of any major incident of violence in the northeast, the scheduled visit of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and PM Narendra Modi for the annual Indo-Japan summit in Guwahati from December 15 and to Imphal on December 17 has been postponed due to the unrest in the region.
Guwahati, which was given a facelift in view of the highprofile visit, now lies in tatters after two days of vandalism by miscreants in the garb of anti-CAB protesters.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted, “With reference to the proposed visit of Japanese PM @AbeShinzo to India, both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future.”
The anti-CAB protests have put the state BJP unit in a tight spot. After filmstar and chairman of Assam State Film Finance Development Corporation Jatin Bora resigned from BJP on Thursday, former All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) leader Jagadish Bhuyan, who is now with BJP, quit the party and also from the post of Assam Petrochemicals Ltd chairman on Friday.
Assam assembly speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami, who is also from BJP, said the new Act may “create division among different castes, communities and languages”.
“Though I should not comment on the Act as I am discharging constitutional duties as speaker, as a person working for the nation and community through the Assam Agitation, I feel that the doubts created by this Act are not baseless.”
Earlier in the day, the 171Bn of CRPF rescued 40 students and youths from Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh, who were stranded in curfew-bound Dibrugarh town, and provided food and shelter to them. “They were going to Changlang district from Dimapur via Dibrugarh but were left stranded in different locations of Dibrugarh since the past last three days without proper food and stay. A team of 171 Bn CRPF, led by inspector Raile Paul, shifted them to the battalion headquarters and provided food, shelter and other basic amenities,” a CRPF spokesman said.
The commandant of 171 Bn, PK Singh, is co-ordinating with the DC and SP of Changlang for their safe movement to respective remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh through helicopter and convoys.
The protests since Monday, which had forced the railways to either cancel or restrict the movement of several trains, have left hundreds of air and train travellers stranded at airports and railway stations here. These people are facing a shortage of drinking water and food as the city continues to remain under curfew. Since Wednesday, all short-distance and local passenger trains remain cancelled and all long-distance trains have been terminated and are now originating from Guwahati, said Northeast Frontier railway PRO N Bhattacharya.
The state government on Friday provided buses to transport them and also provide food and water at the airport and railway stations at Paltan Bazar and Kamakhya.