India faces further protests against a citizenship law deemed discriminatory against Muslims, leading to violent clashes in New Delhi. Mostly concentrated in northeast India in recent days, resulting in the death of six people, the mobilizations spread, Sunday, December 16, at several campuses in the country, in response to violence earlier in the day within Jamia Millia Islamia University in the capital.
Protesters and police clashed inside and around this university, which is among the most prestigious in the country. Law enforcement officers fired tear gas and charged the crowd with sticks, while protesters are accused of burning down four buses and two police vehicles. Videos showed scenes of chaos inside the university buildings, with bloody students.
According to the Indian press, a hundred students and a dozen police officers were injured in these clashes. About 50 detainees were released on Monday morning after spending the night in cells, local police said.
"Many students and employees injured"
"The police did not differentiate between the demonstrations and the students sitting at the library. Many students and staff were injured," said Najma Akhtar, director of the establishment, to the ANI agency.
In solidarity with the students of Jamia, students marched on Sunday evening in many Indian universities, from Delhi to Bombay, from Hyderabad to Patna via Calcutta.
At the origin of this protest movement, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), approved last week by the Indian Parliament, facilitates the granting of Indian citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan but to provided they are not Muslim.
For its detractors, this law is part of the will of the Hindu nationalist power to marginalize the Muslim minority in the country of 1.3 billion inhabitants. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights described the text as "fundamentally discriminatory".
Internet cut in the north of the country
In a statement posted via WhatsApp, the students of Jamia condemned the violence and dissociated themselves from it. "We have always maintained that our protests are peaceful and non-violent and we condemn any party involved in the violence," said the text.
In the large state of Uttar Pradesh (north), authorities cut the internet in several areas after protests in Aligarh, the seat of a large university and a large Muslim population.
In north-eastern India, a mosaic region plagued by frequent inter-community clashes, protesters oppose the legislation on the grounds that it would cause an influx into their region of Hindu refugees from border Bangladesh. 6,000 people marched Sunday evening in Assam, the main state of this area, without major incidents.
An appeal against the law
Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress party and its allies of being responsible for the unrest. His right arm, Interior Minister Amit Shah, called for calm.
"The culture, language, social identity and political rights of our brothers and sisters in the northeast will remain intact," Amit Shah said in a speech.
Human rights organizations and a Muslim political party have appealed the law to the Supreme Court, arguing that it is contrary to the Indian constitution and secular traditions.
With AFP
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