Guwahati: Three protesters were killed and many others injured in police firing in Guwahati as the agitation against the Citizenship Bill spiralled out of control.
The palpable anger in parts of Assam can be gauged from the fact that thousands of protesters had descended on the streets in defiance of a curfew, when the jittery security forces fired on them at several places.
According to a wire agency, 11 people were brought to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital with gunshot injuries.
A curfew was clamped on the city after Parliament cleared the prickly legislation on Wednesday night.
Since the outset, the government has tried to rein in the protestors by imposing an online blackout, which was further extended in 10 districts of Assam for another 48 hours.
The Army has taken charge of the four areas where clashes occurred, leading to the firing. The protestors, too, had switched tracks and were now targeting the residences of politicians; at the receiving end were the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister Rameswar Teli and BJP MLA Binanda Hazarika.
Heads rolled in the police establishment with the state's BJP government removing the Guwahati Police commissioner.
The lack of fear on the streets was worrisome with protestors thumbing their nose at Army contingents staging flag marches. The curfew in force in several towns and cities, too, was not acting as a deterrent.
Guwahati, which has turned into a garrison town, was the nerve centre of the protests with a cascading effect being felt in other cities in the Brahmaputra Valley.
Five columns of the army -- each comprising 70 personnel -- have been deployed in the state -- in Guwahati, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Jorhat districts.
Frenzied mobs blocked roads by burning tyres and tried to spook commuters by bludgeoning their vehicles with sticks and stones. Legal advisor to the chief miniter Santanu Bharali's house has been vandalised. Asom Gana Parishad’s office was attacked twice.
PM Modi appealed for calm online and sought to reassure the protesters, insisting that his government was committed to safeguarding their rights. However, the fact that there is an online blackout in Assam, seemed to make a mockery of his reassuring tweets.
The solace was that no major incident of violence was reported from Tripura and state capital Agartala merely observed a shutdown. In the interim, the Railways have suspended all passenger train services within Tripura and Assam and short-terminated long distance trains at Guwahati. An unspecified number of flights to the northeast too have been cancelled.
As protests continued, I & B ministry issued an advisory to private satellite TV channels to be cautious about airing inflammatory content. The advisory was issued after some TV channels showed footage of the violence. Meanwhile, shots were fired in front of Jorhat MP Tapan Gogoi's residence.
On Wednesday night, Chabua and Panitola railway stations in Upper Assam were set ablaze. Furthermore, three ‘gaon’ panchayats – Laipuli, Boruahola and Dimolguri in Tinsukia district -- were also set on fire.
Reports from Meghalaya stated that following violence by protesters in the Police Bazar area of Shillong, curfew has been imposed in many areas of the city since 10 pm on Wednesday.
CREDIT: EastMojo.com
