Northeast on the edge over Citizenship Amendment Bill; violent protests in Assam, Army deployed

Protests in the northeastern states of the country intensified on Wednesday over the Citizenship Amendment Bill. As the situation became particularly tense in Assam and Tripura, the Army was called in for deployment. One column each was deployed in Assam and Tripura and another one kept on standby.

Additionally, a large contingent of Central paramilitary force has also been deployed in the area. According to various reports, 50,000 paramilitary personnel were flown in from Kashmir for deployment in various northeastern states. Mobile and internet services have been snapped for 24 hours in Assam in view of the tense situation.

The CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha and there were intense debates on it in the Rajya Sabha throughout the day.

Assam was particularly on the edge with violent protests in Guwahati and Dibrugarh. In Guwahati, protests were taken out just outside the state secretariat building, with tyres burning and clashes taking place between the police and protestors. Police resorted to firing in the air to disperse the crowd. A number of students’ groups have been leading the protests in Assam.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was stuck at Guwahati airport for over an hour as his security personnel did not feel it safe for the CM to get into the city as the protests were turning rather violent.

Police lathicharged on the protesters in Guwahati’s Khanapara who were staging protests by burning tyres. Police fired empty rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells at the protesters.

National Highway-37 in Assam’s Karimganj was blocked by the protesters for a long time before being dispersed by the police. Protesters blocking the rail tracks and the roads engaged in a tussle with the police in Assam’s Dibrugarh. Police lathicharged on the protesters. A journalist was injured in stone pelting by the angry mob in Dibrugarh.

Although none of the organisations or students’ unions had officially called for a strike today, people on their own took to the streets in large numbers in Assam’s Jorhat, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur among other districts.

Protests have also been reported from parts of Tripura, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, where people came out in large numbers marching in processions. Due to the protests, the Northeast Frontier Railway cancelled or diverted at least 14 trains.