ASSAM TIMES POSTGuwahati : Assam raged against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill with the army being asked to standby in two districts and internet services suspended as protestors were fired with rubber bullets, lathicharged and sprayed with water canons on Wednesday.
The army has been asked to be on standby by the district administrations of Goalpara and Bongaigaon while internet services have been suspended in ten districts of Assam, official sources said. Internet services will be suspended from 7 p.m in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup (Metro) and Kamrup, a notification issued by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Political department) Sanjay Krishna said. Protestors were fired upon by the police in Dispur area as they marched to gherao the state secretariat and the Assam legislative assembly.
Protesting students and public broke barricades in several places on the Guwahati-Shillong (GS) Road to reach the secretariat when the police first resorted to lathicharge, teargas and finally opened fire to disperse the protesting students. The students continued to march towards the secretariat burni tyres along the way and a huge bonfire of tyres and bamboo was set ablaze near the gates of the state secretariat. Water canons were used to disperse the protestors but they later reassembled and continued with the agitation. The government employees of the state secretariat carrying anti-CAB placards and the state symbol of honour the ‘gamosa’ came out from their office and stood behind the gates shouting slogans supporting the protestors and against the Bill. The Assam Secretariat Employees’ Association also issued a statement supporting the protest and opposing the CAB. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was reported to have been stranded for sometime at the Guwahati airport during the protests while he was returning from Tezpur on a helicopter. His convoy later left for his official residence.
Police also fired in the air to disperse protestors in Dibrugarh in which a reporter was injured and a flag march was staged in the district. Police also used teargas to disperse protestors near the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tinsukia. There has been no bandh called in Assam today but the KMSS has called a hartal urging people to continue their protest against the CAB until it was withdrawn. Life came to a grinding halt in the districts of Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sibsagar, parts of Guwahati and in some districts of Lower Assam.
Protestors also gathered near the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Sibsagar where KMSS Chief Akhil addressed the gathering urging people to continue their protest till the Bill was withdrawn. In Udalguri district under BTAD, which has been excluded from the CAB as it is under the Sixth Schedule, a bandh has been called by the local unit AASU for three hours from 2 p.m to protest against the Bill. The Gauhati and Dibrugarh Universities have postponed all examinations scheduled December 14. Classes in most of the Universities and Colleges in the state were not held today as students continued their protests against the Bill. Schools were open today but children in school buses were stranded at several places as protestors blocked roads. National Highway 31 has been blocked at several places in Nalbari and Kamrup districts.
Protests are continuing with torchlight processions, burning of tyres and people coming out in large numbers to demonstrate against the CAB at several places of the state. In capital city Guwahati, people in all residential localities and commercial areas have come out to protest against the Bill till the filing of this report. The CAB which was introduced in Rajya Sabha today and was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday. It seeks to give Indian citizenship to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31 2014, facing religious persecution there.
