Guwahati: Thousands of protesters coming from different walks of life took part in a protest rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) at Chowkidinghee playground in Dibrugarh on Tuesday.
Organised by All Assam Students Union (AASU), people walked down the streets to participate in the “Janataar Gorjon” (Peoples' Roar).
Addressing the rally, AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath urged people to protest against the contentious Act. “We are fighting the issue legally as well as democratically by staging peaceful protests. Our protests will continue till we achieve our result,” Nath said at the rally.
Urging the protesters to maintain democratic norms while registering their protest, AASU general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi said, “Each and everyone of us should maintain peace. We must achieve our target and that is to force the Centre to scrap the Act.”
The speakers vowed to carry on with their protest against the CAA until it was scrapped. Among those who addressed the mammoth gathering includes ex-Asom Sahitya Sabha president Dr Nagen Saikia, senior AASU leaders, some popular singers.
At another protest rally in Tezpur, northern Assam, the leaders of AASU also reiterated that the protests would continue until and unless the people of the state achieve their desired results. All business establishments, schools, colleges and banking institutions remained closed during the day in both the locations.
Meanwhile, demanding the immediate release of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi, the Krishak Shramik Unanyan Parishad (KSUP) — in association with seven other ‘brotherhood’ organisations — has called for a 12-hour Assam bandh starting from 5 am on December 27. While announcing the 12-hour-long bandh across Assam, the organisations informed that emergency services like fire services, hospitals and college and university examinations have been exempted from the purview of the shutdown.
The civil bodies also appealed the general public of the state to extend their support to the bandh call and to observe it in a democratic and peaceful manner. Standing firm to their stand against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the organisations demanded the government to nullify the contentious and “unconstitutional” law.
