Police arrested dozens of people and enforced a curfew on Thursday in several districts in India's northeastern Assam state where thousands protested legislation granting citizenship to non-Muslims who migrated from neighbouring countries.
Groups of protesters defied the curfew in Gauhati, the state capital, on Thursday morning and burned tires before police dispersed them.
Soldiers drove and marched through the streets to reinforce police in violence-hit districts, which included Gauhati and Dibrugarh, said state police chief Bhaskar Mahanta.
The protesters in Assam oppose the legislation out of concern that migrants will move to the border region and dilute the culture and political sway of indigenous tribal people.
The legislation was passed by parliament on Wednesday and now needs to be signed by the country's ceremonial president, a formality, before becoming law.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace.
"I want to assure them no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow," he said in a tweet.
Our brothers & sisters in Assam cannot read your 'reassuring' message Modiji, in case you've forgotten, their internet has been cut off. twitter.com/narendramodi/s…
In a response to Modi's message on Twitter, opposition Congress party said: "Our brothers & sisters in Assam cannot read your 'reassuring' message Modiji, in case you've forgotten, their internet has been cut off."
The Press Trust of India news agency said the protesters uprooted telephone poles, burned several buses and other vehicles and also attacked homes of officials from the governing Hindu nationalist party and the regional group Assam Gana Parishad.
Police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters in 10 out of the state's 33 districts.
While those protesting in Assam are opposed to the bill because of worries it will allow immigrants, no matter their faith, to live in their region, others are opposed to the bill because they see it as discriminatory for not applying to Muslims.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill, seeks to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh because of religious persecution before 2015. It does not, however, extend to Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar.
Home Minister Amit Shah said it was not anti-Muslim because it did not affect the existing path to citizenship available to all communities.
Amnesty India said the legislation legitimised discrimination on the basis of religion and stood in clear violation of the India's constitution and international human rights law.
"Welcoming asylum seekers is a positive step, but in a secular country like India, slamming the door on persecuted Muslims and other communities merely for their faith reeks of fear-mongering and bigotry," the rights group said in a statement.
Several opposition lawmakers who debated the bill in parliament said it would be challenged in court.
"Today marks a dark day in the constitutional history of India," said Sonia Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party.
"The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill marks the victory of narrow-minded and bigoted forces over India's pluralism.
"Its passage follows a contentious citizenship registry exercise in Assam intended to identify legal residents and weed out those in the country illegally. Shah has pledged to roll it out nationwide, promising to rid India of infiltrators."
Nearly 2 million people in Assam were excluded from the list about half Hindus and the other half Muslims and have been asked to prove their citizenship or else be rendered stateless.
India is constructing a detention centre for some of the tens of thousands the courts are expected to ultimately determine came to the country illegally.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill could provide protection and a fast track to naturalisation for many of the Hindus left off Assam's citizenship list.
Hours after the Indian parliament passed the anti-Muslim legislature, the Citizens Amendment Bill 2019 was challenged in the Supreme Court on Thursday, as violent protests erupted against the new law.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) approached the Supreme Court against the new legislature. Its petition argued that the law is a violation of the Constitution – granting citizenship based on religion.
India moved thousands of troops into the northeastern state of Assam as protests erupted against a new law that would make it easier for non-Muslim minorities from some neighboring countries to seek Indian citizenship.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has said the so-called Citizenship Amendment Bill was meant to protect besieged minorities.Critics say it undermines the country’s secular constitution by not offering protection to Muslims while others argue it will open India’s northern states to a flood of foreigners.
Resistance to the bill has been the strongest in the tea-growing Assam state, where a movement against illegal immigrants from its neighboring Bangladesh has simmered for decades.
As India’s upper house of parliament passed the bill in the early hours of Thursday, protests took place across India’s northeast. In Assam, protesters defied a curfew, torching cars and tires and chanting anti-Modi slogans.A curfew was imposed in parts of northeast India, including Assam, after protesters came out on the streets against the bill that they fear will encourage Hindus from Bangladesh to settle in the region.Resistance to the bill has been the strongest in the Assam state, where a movement against undocumented immigrants has simmered for decades.
'Constitutionally suspect'
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed by parliament's upper house on Wednesday blocks naturalisation for Muslims from neighbouring countries - a fact critics say violates India's secular constitution.
"It is constitutionally suspect and legally untenable but let's see what the Supreme Court does in this case," said Faizan Mustafa, an expert on constitutional law and vice chancellor at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said the CAB is meant to protect besieged minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In Assam, protesters defied a curfew, torching cars and tyres and chanting anti-Modi slogans.
While the streets of Assam's capital Guwahati were largely calm as troops moved in from neighbouring states, protesters were back on the streets in other parts such as Morigaon, where they set tyres alight.
Mobile internet has been suspended in 10 districts in Assam for 24 hours until 7pm Thursday, the government said in an order, adding that social media platforms could potentially be used to "inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation".
"It looks like the government is perhaps planning to send more boots on the ground," Al Jazeera’s Anchal Vohra, reporting from Guwahati, said.
"The protesters are not giving up, they have blocked many roads and are chanting slogans around burnt tires.
"They say their struggle is to protect their indigenous culture and livelihoods."
Turmoil in Assam
The turmoil in Assam comes just days ahead of an annual summit there in which Modi plans to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside Delhi to different parts of India, to showcase its diversity.
A demonstrator displays a placard during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Ahmedabad [Amit Dave/Reuters]
Protesters attacked the homes of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and other members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) overnight, blaming them for playing politics in a region with a history of ethnic and religious tensions and by opening the floodgates to more outsiders.
"This a spontaneous public outburst," said Nehal Jain, a masters student in communications in Guwahati. "First, they tell us there are too many illegal immigrants and we need to get rid of them. Then they bring in this law that would allow citizenship to immigrants," she said.
The Indian Express said the law, which now only requires presidential assent, unfairly targets India's 170 million Muslims.
"It is a political signal of a terrible narrowing, a chilling exclusion, directed at India’s own largest minority. India is to be redefined as the natural home of Hindus, it says to India’s Muslims. And that they must, therefore, be content with a less natural citizenship."
The Amnesty International dubbed it a "bigoted law that must be immediately repealed".
"The Bill, while inclusionary in its stated objective, is exclusionary in its structure and intent," it said in a statement on Thursdsy.
Meanwhile, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a regional political party based in southern Kerala state, on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the bill.
The government has said the new law will be followed by a national citizenship register which will put the onus on Muslims to prove they are original residents of India and not refugees from these three countries, potentially rendering some of them stateless.
Members of other faiths listed in the new law, by contrast, have a clear path to citizenship.
Also left out are other minorities fleeing political or religious persecution elsewhere in the region such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China.
'Constitutionally suspect'
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed by parliament's upper house on Wednesday blocks naturalisation for Muslims from neighbouring countries - a fact critics say violates India's secular constitution.
"It is constitutionally suspect and legally untenable but let's see what the Supreme Court does in this case," said Faizan Mustafa, an expert on constitutional law and vice chancellor at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said the CAB is meant to protect besieged minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In Assam, protesters defied a curfew, torching cars and tyres and chanting anti-Modi slogans.
While the streets of Assam's capital Guwahati were largely calm as troops moved in from neighbouring states, protesters were back on the streets in other parts such as Morigaon, where they set tyres alight.
Mobile internet has been suspended in 10 districts in Assam for 24 hours until 7pm Thursday, the government said in an order, adding that social media platforms could potentially be used to "inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation".
"It looks like the government is perhaps planning to send more boots on the ground," Al Jazeera’s Anchal Vohra, reporting from Guwahati, said.
"The protesters are not giving up, they have blocked many roads and are chanting slogans around burnt tires.
"They say their struggle is to protect their indigenous culture and livelihoods."
Turmoil in Assam
The turmoil in Assam comes just days ahead of an annual summit there in which Modi plans to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside Delhi to different parts of India, to showcase its diversity.
A demonstrator displays a placard during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Ahmedabad [Amit Dave/Reuters]
Protesters attacked the homes of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and other members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) overnight, blaming them for playing politics in a region with a history of ethnic and religious tensions and by opening the floodgates to more outsiders.
"This a spontaneous public outburst," said Nehal Jain, a masters student in communications in Guwahati. "First, they tell us there are too many illegal immigrants and we need to get rid of them. Then they bring in this law that would allow citizenship to immigrants," she said.
The Indian Express said the law, which now only requires presidential assent, unfairly targets India's 170 million Muslims.
"It is a political signal of a terrible narrowing, a chilling exclusion, directed at India’s own largest minority. India is to be redefined as the natural home of Hindus, it says to India’s Muslims. And that they must, therefore, be content with a less natural citizenship."
The Amnesty International dubbed it a "bigoted law that must be immediately repealed".
"The Bill, while inclusionary in its stated objective, is exclusionary in its structure and intent," it said in a statement on Thursdsy.
Meanwhile, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a regional political party based in southern Kerala state, on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the bill.
The government has said the new law will be followed by a national citizenship register which will put the onus on Muslims to prove they are original residents of India and not refugees from these three countries, potentially rendering some of them stateless.
Members of other faiths listed in the new law, by contrast, have a clear path to citizenship.
Also left out are other minorities fleeing political or religious persecution elsewhere in the region such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China.
