The Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organisations in Assam has called for a 24-hour bandh starting from 5 am on January 11. The tribals body has called for a bandh to protest against the bill to give Scheduled Tribe status to six communities in the state.
The communities that are proposed to be included in the ST category are Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak and tea tribes of Assam. Assam has witnessed protests since the Union Cabinet on Monday approved the Bill that aims to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for citizenship of India, after a Joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its recommendations to the Lok Sabha.
As the bandh was about to start, a group of agitators vandalised a BJP office in Guwahati while protesting. The agitators belonging to Oikya Sena Asom on Thursday night vandalised the office in Palashbari area. The police said the protesters set fire to the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, and also blocked the national highway shouting slogans against the BJP-led NDA government. Later, the police took the agitators into custody.
