Army on stand-by in Dibrugarh; ‘Dispur Chalo’ paralyses Guwahati, curfew imposed
Guwahati/UNI/IBNS: Hundreds of students today took out a ‘Dispur Chalo’ march through the streets of Assam’s main city Guwahati, while Army was put on stand-by in Dibrugarh town and a spontaneous bandh was observed in Jorhat as anti-CAB protests continued to rock Assam. Curfew has been imposed in the city.
One column of Army men on stand by consisted of of around 70 soldiers and headed by one officer.
Army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said Field Commanders and the Army HQ are monitoring the situation closely.
An additional deployment of a Police Quick Response Team in Assam's Dibrugarh district has been confirmed, an NDTV report said.
Further, at least 5,000 para military forces have been deployed across North East to deal with the backlash against CAB.
Students from different colleges of Guwahati launched the ‘Dispur Chalo’ from Cotton University gate at Panbazar, and were joined by students from different colleges as they marched towards the state secretariat at Dispur.
The students broke through several police barricades and braved baton charge and tear gas shells at multiple places during the nearly 10-km march.
Students reached the secretariat gates from different directions, forcing the police and other security personnel to erect multiple barricades and cordon off the entire Dispur-Ganeshguri area.
A number of student union leaders were arrested by the police during the protest march.
Shops spontaneously closed shutters in the area as well as most other parts of the city, with vehicular traffic too being thin.
The Gauhati University and the Dibrugarh University have postponed all examination scheduled for today.
In Dibrugarh town in eastern part of the state, Army was put on stand-by and a column was stationed at Lahowal, about 10 kms from the Dibrugarh town, this forenoon, an Army source said.
The column was later withdrawn from Lahowal at around 1400 hours as the situation in the town eased.
A spontaneous total shutdown was observed in Jorhat town, which has been witnessing intense anti-CAB protests over the last few days.
A protest rally was also held at Baruah Chariali of the town, where protestors also burnt tyres.
Yesterday spontaneous supporters of the 11-hour North East Students Organisation (NESO)-called North East region shutdown had come out in hundreds in different parts of Guwahati, the main city of Assam as well as the ‘gateway to NE’, virtually laying siege at several vantage points.
Police had to resort to baton charge at different locations of the city, while the bandh supporters and general public attempted to gherao the state secretariat at Dispur and Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) headquarter at Maligaon.
Assam as well as NE region has been opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India prior to December 31, 2014.
The protestors have been claiming that it will change the demographic pattern of the state as well as NE region.
The CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday night and was tabled in the Rajya Sabha today.
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