New Delhi: A day after students at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University bore the brunt of police violence for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, students from across the country organised protests to show their solidarity.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants Indian citizenship to six non-Muslim communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Parsis – from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they came to India before 2014. It has been widely criticised as being openly communal and anti-Muslim.
In Assam, five people have lost their lives after the police opened fire on protesters at different spots. The Northeast has been seeing large-scale protests against the Act, as people feel indigenous cultures and livelihoods will be under threat if immigrants from Bangladesh are granted citizenship. The Act also violates the Assam Accord of 1985.