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At least 60 organizations, including the Congress, have given a 12-hour 'Assam Bandh' call today to register protest against a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with the Ministries of Home and External Affairs over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. The bill seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, drawing opposition from several organizations in Assam.
Protestors on Tuesday tried to put up blockades on railway tracks and disrupt train services across Assam as part of the 12-hour state-wide bandh called by 46 organisations against the Citizenship Bill.
Police officials said here that the demonstrators, who were trying to prevent train movement by squatting on tracks, were being evicted.
Demonstrators also burnt tyres on roads in various places of the state.
Police escorts were being provided to public transport vehicles to ensure transport services functioned normally during the bandh.
In view of the bandh call, the Assam government has instructed all district magistrates and superintendents of police to take all measures to maintain the public utility services. A government communique in this regard said that all ncessary pre-emptive and preventive measures to thwart the bandh call must be taken in view of the judgement of the Gauhati High Court.
KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi said this was the first time that they had called a bandh and they would not call it off as the very ''existence of the Assamese and their identity was at stake by the Bill".
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.
The Gauhati High Court had banned bandhs in the state and termed them "unconstitutional and illegal".\
According to news agency ANI, a meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) will meet in Delhi later today to discuss the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016. Representatives of the Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs will be present in the meeting.
