India: Many protests against citizenship law despite bans

Preventive bans and Internet outages will not have been right in their determination. Tens of thousands of Indians are demonstrating again Thursday, December 19, across the country, continuing their mobilization against a new citizenship law.

Numerous demonstrations, sometimes punctuated by clashes, were reported in various places in the second most populous country on the planet, even though the Indian authorities had prohibited any gathering of more than four people in many cities and regions.

Clashes between police and demonstrators

From New Delhi to the remote northeastern states, this protest movement, led mainly by members of the Muslim community (which makes up 14% of the 1.3 billion Indians), is one of the most important to do. faced the Hindu nationalists of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since they came to power in 2014.

An exceptional decision for the capital, the authorities ordered operators to suspend their mobile phone services in several locations in Delhi on Thursday morning. Mobile networks seemed to be restored in the afternoon, however, while around twenty metro stations in the megalopolis remained closed.

In Uttar Pradesh (north), the most populous region of India with 200 million inhabitants and a large Muslim community, new violence has erupted, despite the ban on gatherings under an article of law inherited from colonization British.

Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators in Lucknow, the regional capital, and in Sambhal district, 300 kilometers away. In the second place, hundreds of demonstrators burned vehicles and threw stones at the security forces, who fired tear gas, said local police chief Yamuna Prasad.

"Merciless repression"

One of the largest rallies reported so far has been in the city of Malegaon in western Maharashtra, a state not affected by the ban, where up to 60,000 people have peacefully gathered.

In the northeast, where the protest movement started last week and resulted in the deaths of six people, more than 20,000 Indians gathered in different places in Assam state, a correspondent for the AFP on site.

Protesters denounce a new law which facilitates the granting of Indian citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh on the condition that they are not Muslims. They consider it discriminatory and contrary to the Constitution.

In the economic capital Bombay, film celebrities were expected in the afternoon at a demonstration organized mainly by young people. "The time to protest on social media alone has passed," actor and director Farhan Akhtar tweeted.

Here's what you need to know about why these protests are important. See you on the 19th at August Kranti Maidan, Mumbai. The time to protest on social media alone is over. pic.twitter.com/lwkyMCHk2v

The new legislation, which does not directly concern Indian Muslims, however, crystallized the fears and anger of the minority, after five years of government of the Hindu nationalists.

Amnesty International has called on the Indian authorities to "end the crackdown on peaceful demonstrators who protest against (a discriminatory law)".

The human rights organization called the action of the security forces, "ruthless", accused by the demonstrators of numerous police violence in recent days.

With AFP

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