The dispute continues in India. New protests against the citizenship law, seen as anti-Muslim, took place on Friday, December 27, in the country, where authorities cut Internet access in several places and deployed thousands of riot police .
At the same time, supporters of the law organized a counter-demonstration in Bombay, the economic capital, illustrating the divisions that this new law has created.
Hundreds of people began to assemble in front of the Grand Mosque in New Delhi after Friday prayers, in the old quarter of the capital, which was squared off by the police. Riot police and paramilitaries erected barricades in the streets leading to the mosque, where violent clashes had broken out during previous demonstrations.
>> Read also: Protests in India: cutting communication networks, a political tool
The protesters said they were determined to continue as long as the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi did not withdraw its controversial law. The latter plans to give Indian nationality to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, except those of the Muslim faith.
Twenty-seven dead in protests
Twenty-seven people perished in two weeks in sometimes violent demonstrations against this law which has led to the largest protest movement in India since the coming to power of Hindu nationalists in 2014.
Hundreds of police were deployed and dozens of chekpoints set up in Bombay, where two rival protests, for or against the law, each brought together nearly 5,000 people.
In anticipation of new protests on Friday, the day of the great Muslim prayer, officials in Uttar Pradesh in the north of the country have suspended mobile Internet and texting in 21 out of 75 districts, including the regional capital Lucknow (north of country).
Blocking the Internet, a commonly used technique
Blocking access to the Internet to limit demonstrations is a technique commonly used by the authorities in India, the country being the world leader in number of outages in this network. The internetshutdown.in site has listed a hundred for the year 2019 alone.
Before the big weekly prayer, thousands of armed police patrolled Friday morning in the Muslim-majority state of Uttar Pradesh. 5,000 people have been placed in pre-trial detention, in addition to 1,000 others already arrested in connection with the protests.
The brutal response of the police forces anger the demonstrators, who accuse the authorities of arbitrary repression.
Concern of the Muslim community
Approved on December 11 by Parliament, the disputed law does not directly concern Indian Muslims, but it has heightened the concerns of this minority (14% of the 1.3 billion Indians), who fear being relegated to the rank of second class citizens in India of Hindu nationalists.
While this protest movement has great international repercussions, the Indian authorities keep an eye on the actions of foreigners present in the country and take sanctions if they discover that they have joined the mobilization.
With AFP
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