Citizenship Amendment Act protests Latest Updates: Advocate Ali Zia Kabir Choudhary, who has been to the Dariyaganj Police Station, informed Firstpost that the police isn't letting advocates inside the police station.
"Police isn't letting advocates in. The detained can number anywhere from 20 to 40," Choudhary told Firstpost.
The students' collective, Pinjra Tod, on Friday evening tweeted that lawyers weren't being allowed access to the protesters detained in the Daryaganj police station after violence erupted during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in the area in the National Capital.
"We have information that 42 minors have been detained inside PS Daryaganj with no access to any legal representation and no permission being provided for parents of minors to meet them. Lawyers aren’t being allowed access!" the collective tweeted.
Around 40 people have been detained in connection with the violence that erupted during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Delhi's Daryaganj on Friday evening. "Around 40 persons have been detained. Strict legal action will be taken against those who have been found involved in the violence and arson." Delhi Police was quoted as saying by The Quint.
"The protesters heeded to police advice and dispersed from Jama Masjid but assembled during dispersal at Delhi Gate. They were constantly persuaded to disperse from there and in spite of provocation from the crowd, police maintained utmost restraint and used a persuasive approach," the statement added.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday evening issued an advisory to all TV channels in view of the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Ammendment Act. The notice advised channels against airing content that is likely to instigate violence.
The advisory comes after News18 India had reported earlier on Friday that the state adminsitration had directed TV channels to stop telecasting in Agra.
The Times of India on Friday quoted a medical officer of the LLRM Medical College saying that all injured and dead had gun shots injuries. "One dead from Muzaffarnagar, Noor Mohammad (25), got a gun shot in his head," the report quoted Dr Harshvardhan Rajput as saying.
Six people died in the violence that accompanied the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across Uttar Pradesh on Friday, NDTV reported, quoting state police officials. Deaths occured in Bijnor, Sambhal, Firozabad, Meerut, and Kanpur.
Two people were shot dead during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC protests in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, The Times of India reported on Friday evening.
On Friday afternoon, the district saw violence during protests, with heavy stone pelting in the Lisari Gate area, the report said. The report also said that there was an incident of arson followed by lathi charge in the district.
As thousands of protesters have hit the streets in Delhi to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act on Friday evening, a car that was reportedly parked in front of the DCP's office was torched in the Daryaganj area of the National Capital, while Delhi Police used water cannons to disperse the crowd.
Protesters also gathered at India Gate on Friday evening.
A fresh protest took place in Delhi's Seelampur on Friday afternoon, reports said. The area had also seen violence following demonstrations against the Citizenship Act this week.
"A large number of people started a protest march from Jafrabad to Seelampur shoutin slogans and defying prohibitory orders after attending the Friday prayers at a mosque in the Welcome area," News18 reported.
Reports said that one person has died in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad on Friday. Protests against the contentious law turned violent on Friday as demonstrators pelted stones and police personnel resorted to tear gas shells and lathi-charge in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Friday closed the gates of 13 metro stations, including the busy Rajiv Chowk, to restrict the movement of anti-CAA agitators in the national capital, which has been witnessing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
"Entry and exit gates of Rajiv Chowk, Pragati Maidan and Khan Market are closed. Interchange facility is available at Rajiv Chowk," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said. Earlier, Johri Enclave, Shiv Vihar and Dilshad Garden stations were closed.
"Of the 285 stations, Chawri Bazar, Lal Quila, Jama Masjid and Delhi Gate on violet line, Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur on pink line and Jamia Millia Islamia on magenta line are closed as per instructions of security agencies. Rest of the metro network is operating as per schedule," the DMRC had tweeted.
"Entry and exit gates of Mandi House and Janpath are closed. Interchange facility is available at Mandi House," the account added.
In all, 13 metro stations are closed.
Internet services were suspended in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district from 3 pm on Friday in view of anti-citizenship law protests. The order has been issued to contain the spread of rumours and misinformation on social media, District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar was quoted as saying by PTI. The district administration move comes after violence erupted during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the district, with incidents of stone pelting and firing being reported.
"In order to maintain law and order and communal harmony, all mobile internet services are being suspended from 3 pm on December 20 in entire Bulandshahr. Internet-related loop lines and lease lines too shall remain suspended," he stated in an order.
Several incidents of violence were reported in districts of Uttar Pradesh on Friday, a day after the state capital Lucknow, saw clashes between police personnel and protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
On Friday, incidents of firing and stone pelting took place in Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Gorakhpur, Firozabad, Kanpur, Bijnor, Bahraich, and Hapur districts, News18 reported.
The report also quoted the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as saying that the decision to block the internet is taken by the local administration on the basis of the assessment of law and order situation.
Several Uttar Pradesh Police personnel and protesters were "grievously" injured after stone pelting and firing erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, News18 reported.
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on Friday detained near Daryaganj during a protest march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar, the outfit claimed. According to Bhim Army, the police tried to detain Azad at Jama Masjid but he managed to get away. However, he was detained later near Daryaganj, it said.
Criticising the Karnataka state government for imposing Section 144 in Bengaluru and other parts of the state, the Karnataka High Court Friday said it will check the legality of the prohibitory orders implemented from 19 to 21 December
Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad is also present at the protest. He had been denied permission for holding a rally in the sensitive area, and was instead asked to hold peaceful demonstrations at Jantar Mantar.
Police have filed a case against 600 protesters who gathered at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on Thursday. Actor Siddharth, singer TM Krishna and politician Thirumavalavan named in in the FIR, ANI reported.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi attended a meeting conducted by the United Muslim Action Committee regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act in Hyderabad on Friday.
The meeting was held at the head office of AIMIM in Hyderabad, where Owaisi taking note of the strong opposition against the new citizenship Act said "will take police permission for the demonstrations".
BS Yediyurappa, chief minister of Karnataka, urged people to stay away from indulging in rumour mongering and assured his government's commitment to protect rights of all citizens. Yediyurappa's statement comes a day after two protesters lost their lives during demonstrations against citizenship Act in Mangalore.
A red alert was sounded in Uttar Pradesh and the city put under a heavy security cover in view of the first Friday prayers since the police crackdown on the students of Aligarh Muslim University protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act earlier this week.
A senior official said that District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh has issued a red alert, and 10 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and four companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed as a precautionary measure.
Assuring that the rights of indigenous Assamese will be protected, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal addressing the media on Friday said, "I want to assure people that no one can steal rights of the sons of the soil of Assam, there is no threat to our language or our identity."
"Nobody can rob our culture, language and identity of Assam. Our land won't be stolen," said Sonowal.
Nine days after the mobile and internet services were suspended following violent protests against the amended citizenship Act in Assam, the services have resumed on Friday.
The Assam government on Thursday said mobile internet services in the state will be restored from Friday though the Gauhati High Court had ordered restoration of the service by 5 pm on Thursday.
"Tomorrow," Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told in a reply to an SMS sent to him on Thursday seeking to know when mobile internet services are likely to be resumed.
Day after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rocked the nation, the entry and exit gates of Jamia Millia Islamia and Jasola Vihar/Shaheen Bagh metro stations were shut as the precautionary measure on Friday.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) tweeted, "Security Update – Entry and exit gates of Jamia Millia Islamia and Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh are closed. Trains will not be halting at these stations. Normal service in all other stations."
According to sources, two simultaneous demonstrations are planned in Delhi for Friday. A march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar is planned in the afternoon around 2 pm and another in the evening in India Gate at 5 pm.
Two persons died of injuries suffered in violent protests against India’s new citizenship law in Mangaluru, hospital officials said on Thursday. They said that at least one of the two dead had been shot.
Local government official Sindhu B. Rupeh said there had been clashes between stone-throwing crowds and police in Mangaluru since Thursday afternoon, despite restrictions imposed on public gatherings.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the financial capital against the Citizenship Amendment Act on Thursday, converging at the August Kranti Maidan, where Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 told the British to quit India.
NCP leader Nawab Malik lashed out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday over the police action against those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), comparing him to "General Dyer".
According to News18 North East, a division bench of Justice Ajay Lamba and Justice Achintya Malla Bujor Barua passed the order, stating that the government should consider restoring mobile internet by 5 pm on Thursday.
Police baton-charged people who gathered in Sardar Baug area of Ahmedabad on Thursday to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.
Amid protests against the amended citizenship law, BJP working president J P Nadda asserted on Thursday that the CAA will be implemented, and that the National Register of Citizens will also be brought in. Nadda made these remarks here after meeting Sikh refugees from Afghanistan, who under the amended act will become Indian citizens, and also slammed the opposition for protesting against the new legislation.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Thursday closed entry and exit gates of 19 stations including the busy Rajiv Chowk for commuters in view of protests in the national capital against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Earlier in the morning, the DMRC had closed gates of seven stations, including Jamia Millia, Jama Masjid and Munirka. Seven more were closed soon after, followed by others in quick succession.
Senior opposition leaders, a large number of students and activists were detained on Thursday by police on their way to two mega demonstrations against the new citizenship law as prohibitory orders and restrictions on internet and mobile phone services in parts of Delhi-NCR region inconvenienced thousands of people. Opposition leaders including D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken Sandeep Dikshit and activists Yogendra Yadav, Umar Khalid, were among those detained near the Red Fort and Mandi House — the sites of the two demonstrations.
Scores of protestors were detained by the Delhi Police near Red Fort when they tried to take out a march in defiance of the prohibitory orders imposed there to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Swarajya Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav was among those who were detained, officials said.
Dramatic visuals emerged from outside Delhi's iconic Red Fort as citizens came out to protest the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act as per the schedule, despite police denying them the permission. The authorities had also imposed Section 144 in the area to thwart protests.
Historian Ramachandra Guha is among the protestors who came in waves to Town Hall, Bengaluru and were detained.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, against which the student community has organised sustained protests nationwide, found itself in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after 59 petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the contentious law.
Additionally, the Delhi High Court has agreed to hear two public interest litigations (PILs) moved regarding the recent violence at the Jamia Millia Islamia university during protests against CAA.
While the apex court bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde decided to examine the constitutional validity of the law, it refused to stay its operation, as was requested by some petitioners.
The newly amended law seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before 31 December, 2014.
Police personnel stop local residents who were holding a protest against Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC at Sarai Hakim Gali in Aligarh on Wednesday. PTI
The top court also issued a notice to the Centre and sought its response by the second week of January 2020, on a batch of pleas challenging the CAA.
A bench also comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant fixed the petitions, including those filed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, for hearing on 22 January 2020.
The bench also agreed to the submission of lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay that common people should be made aware about the aim, objectives, and the contents of the CAA, and asked Attorney General KK Venugopal, who was representing the Centre, to consider using audio-visual medium to make citizens aware of the legislation.
Venugopal agreed to the suggestion and said that the needful would be done by the government. During the hearing, some lawyers appearing for petitioners sought a stay on the operation of the newly amended law.
One of the lawyers, appearing for a petitioner hailing from Assam, said "Let it not be implemented... five students in the Northeast have died." The Attorney General opposed the submission and said there are as many as four judgments which have held that a law cannot be stayed after being notified.
"We are not going to grant a stay," the bench said, adding that arguments on granting stay can be advanced on 22 January, the next date of hearing.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, who represented one of the parties, however, said there was no need to seek the stay on the operation of CAA as it has not come into force because several things like the framing of rules under the law are yet to be done.
Another senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal agreed with Dhavan's submission and said, "We have nothing to say right now".
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), one of the petitioners which has challenged the CAA, said in its plea that the law violates the fundamental Right to Equality and intends to grant citizenship to a section of illegal immigrants by making an exclusion on the basis of religion.
The Parliament cleared the Act on 11 December, which grants citizenship rights to religious minorities such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists, who have come to India on or before 31 December, 2014.
President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on 12 December, turning it into an Act.
The plea by IUML, filed through advocate Pallavi Pratap, sought an interim stay on the operation of CAA and the Foreigner Amendment (Order), 2015 and Passport (Entry Into Rules), Amendment Rules, 2015.
The petition alleged that the government's CAB was against the basic structure of the Constitution and intended to explicitly discriminate against Muslims as the Act extended benefits only to people of some religions.
The plea filed by Jairam Ramesh, has said that the Act is a "brazen attack" on core fundamental rights envisaged under the Constitution and treats "equals as unequal".
In his petition, Ramesh has said that substantial questions of law, including whether religion can be a factor to either acquire or deny citizenship in India, arises for consideration of the court as it is a "patently unconstitutional" amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955.
"The impugned Act creates two classifications, viz, classification on basis of religion and the classification on the basis of geography and both the classifications are completely unreasonable and share no rational nexus to the object of the impugned Act i.e., to provide shelter, safety and citizenship to communities who in their native country are facing persecution on grounds of religion," the plea has said.
Several petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the Act including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
Several other petitioners include Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs 'Rihai Manch' and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.
Your job isn't to set India afire, but to douse it: Mamata Banerjee tells Amit Shah
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday continued her campaign against the Citizenship Amendment Act and slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the violent protests against the law.
She said that his “job is not to set the country on fire but to put it out”.
Also taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' slogan, she said the BJP government had brought "satyanaash" (disaster) for everyone in the country.
"I urge Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure that the nation does not burn. Your job is not to set the country on fire, but to douse it," she said after leading a protest march against the law from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade in Kolkata.
Protests against the amended Citizenship Act have erupted in several states of the country including West Bengal. Agitators had set fire to trains, railway station complexes and buses in different parts of the state on Saturday and Sunday.
Appealing to Shah to take care of the country and "control" BJP cadres, the Trinamool Congress supremo reiterated her stand of not implementing the NRC and the amended Citizenship Act saying they were "two sides of the same coin".
"You (Shah) said none will lose citizenship. But now you are (also) saying neither PAN, nor Aadhaar will prove citizenship. Then what will work? An amulet from the BJP? The BJP has become a Washing machine
," Banerjee said.
Accusing the BJP of planning to turn the entire country into a detention centre, the chief minister said in the rally she will never allow that to happen.
The TMC supremo who has been at the forefront of opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the new citizenship law, is scheduled to hold two protest meetings in the next two days.
Banerjee urged agitators not to take the path of violence but protest in a democratic way.
Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan also visited the Madras University premises in Chennai and expressed solidarity with students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Haasan was, however, not allowed to enter the main campus and spoke to the agitating students from behind the main gate of the university, opposite the Marina Beach. The MNM chief said he was at the varsity to express solidarity with the students, who are on the protest for the third day on Wednesday.
"There are efforts to silence the voices of around 800 students. I have come here to lend my face as their podium and my vocal cords as their microphone. I will keep voicing (objections) regardless of whether I have started a political party or not. Now that I have a party, it becomes my duty to be here and voice. All over India, these kind of voices are rising, and you cannot silence them," he said to reporters.
Nationwide peaceful anti-CAA protests continue
Meanwhile, protests against the law continued in campuses and cities across the country.
With inputs from agencies
