Protests erupt across India over citizenship law which excludes Muslims
On Sunday, deadly protests erupted across India over a controversial citizen ship bill that critics fear could further marginalize India’s Muslim community.
According to Indian media, protests broke out at different India’s universities, including in Hyderabad, Varanasi, and the country’s capital New Delhi, while the videos showed police firing tear gas at the protesters at Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh. The police said, at least five people were killed in Assam’s ongoing protests.
Students began demonstrating early Sunday at the prestigious Jamia Milia Islamia University, with around 2,000 people taking part at the protest’s peak.
According to Scroll.in, some students were detained at the Kalkaji police station and the authorities were allowing them to see their lawyers.
The students were seen exiting the campus with their hands in the air in a video posted by the NDTV
One of the students told NDTV outside the university,
“Actually, we were hiding in the library because policemen [were] beating us all,” it’s really terrifying what they are doing to us. They are asking us to keep our hands up. We are not criminals.”
What is the Citizen Amendment Bill?
The Citizenship Amendment Bill — approved this week — allows for the fast-tracking of applications from religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. This does not include Muslims.
For Islamic groups, the opposition and rights organisations, it is part of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims.
Whereas, Modi denies this and says that Muslims from these three countries are not covered by the legislation because they have no need of India’s protection.
Here are some pictures of the protests
Today (on Monday) Narendra Modi condemned the protest and said,
“This is the time to maintain peace, unity and brotherhood. It is my appeal to everyone to stay away from any sort of rumour mongering and falsehoods.”
