Parts of Assam tense as Amit Shah gears up to table CAB

Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Bill protesters burnt tyres, clashed with police and many raised slogans with swords in their hands in parts of Assam, as Home Minister Amit Shah gears up to table the Bill in Lok Sabha on Monday.

One protester sustained serious head injuries in a clash with police in the Dhemaji district in North Assam during the 12-hour Assam bandh called by the students' unions representing the Moran and the Chutia communities. The North East Students' Organisation (NESO), including the All Assam Students' Union, also called a bandh across the region on Tuesday. 

Upper Assam districts such as Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Majuli witnessed strong protests as thousands spilled onto the streets demanding the scrapping of the Bill. "We are ready to die but will never accept the Bill," one of the protesters shouted in front of television cameras in Dhemaji district. 

The Bill seeks to allow "religious persecuted minorities" from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan such as Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs, who had migrated till December 2014, to apply for Indian citizenship after a stay of six years. Organisations representing indigenous communities fear that such a move would reduce the ethnic communities into minorities and endanger their cultural identity. They want all foreigners, irrespective of religion, to be detected based on the March 24, 1971 cut-off date.

Many also staged protests in front of residence and offices of leaders of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the regional ally of the BJP for not opposing the Bill. Many people belonging to the non-Muslim communities, whose names were left out of the NRC, however, are pinning hope on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to end the uncertainty over their citizenship claim.