Tens of thousands of protesters against Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) descended on the streets of Assam on Wednesday, clashing with police and plunging the State into chaos.

Though no party or student body has called a shutdown, protesters, mostly students, fought pitched battles with security forces in the restive State, including in front of the secretariat, the seat of the BJP government.

According to student leaders , many agitators were injured in police action in front of the secretariat. All senior civil and police officials were incommunicado but, according to unofficial accounts, hundreds of protesters have been detained in Guwahati and other places such as Dibrugarh and Jorhat.

A large number of agitated students blocked the road near the secretariat complex and pulled down the barricade erected on the arterial G.S. Road. Police burst teargas shells and baton-charged the protesters, who were seen lobbing back the shells at men in uniform.

The student protesters damaged a stage erected on the road for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Sunday. They also pulled down hoardings and banners advertising the government’s welfare schemes and made a bonfire of those before the secretariat.

The police in Dibrugarh, fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells to break up protests. Also a journalist was reported injured in a stone throwing incident.

Spontaneous protests were also witnessed in Golaghat, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and many other districts since morning. A motorcycle rally was organised against the CAB in Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s hometown Chabua.

Source: The Hindu

BDST: 2038 HRS, DEC 11, 2019
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