Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad led a massive protest at the Jama Masjid in Delhi against the amendments to the Citizenship Act on Friday. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police had denied the Bhim Army permission to hold the protest.
In Tamil Nadu, police filed a case against 600 people, including actor Siddharth, musician TM Krishna, Lok Sabha MP Thol Thirumavalavan and former MLA MH Jawahirullah, for protesting against the new legislation in Chennai on Thursday. In Delhi, Congress leaders who were protesting near Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence were detained.
Meanwhile, mobile internet services were restored across Assam on Friday morning, several days after it was snapped due to the ongoing protests. But internet services were snapped in several parts of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka as the state governments tried to bring the law and order situation under control.
At least two people died in Mangaluru in Karnataka, and one in Lucknow on Thursday as the police and protestors clashed. Thousands of protestors were detained across the country throughout Thursday as rallies were held in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and many other cities.
nine Delhi Metro stations were closed on Friday afternoon as a massive crowd of demonstrators to protest the amended Citizenship Act.
The new law deals with the naturalisation of illegal immigrants and is seen by critics as anti-Muslim — a charge the government denies.
The metro stations that have been closed so far are Chawri Bazar on the Yellow Line; Lal Quila, Jama Masjid and Delhi Gate on the Violet Line; Jaffrabad, Shiv Vihar and Maujpur-Baburpur on the Pink Line; Jamia Millia Islamia on the Magenta Line and Dilshad Garden on the Red Line.
On Thursday, as many as 19 stations, including the busy Rajiv Chowk station located beneath Connaught Place, were closed as the authorities worked to contain protests.
The large-scale protests over Citizenship Amendment Act in and around Uttar Pradesh turned violent on Friday afternoon as protesters went on a rampage in six districts, pelting stones at the police, setting vehicles on fire and ransacking a number of police outposts.
The protests against the controversial CA Act led to major violence in Kanpur, Firozabad’s Lalganj area, Bijnor’s Naya Bazar area, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahar and Gorakhpur. Protesters pelted stones at the police, set motorbikes and cars on fire and ransacked police outposts in Hardoi and Farrukhabad.
Meanwhile crowd swelled despite a prohibitory order at various locations in the national capital including gates of Jama Masjid. There were, however, groups of protesters who appealed people to carry out their protest peacefully and not resort to any form of violence.
