TEHRAN, Dec 17_A fresh round of protests has broken out against an anti-Muslim citizenship law in India, amid evidence of excessive force used by police to suppress public outcry.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_ The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which was passed by Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last week, aims to purportedly save religious minorities from persecution in neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan by offering them an easy path to Indian citizenship.
Critics say Modi has designed the discriminatory law explicitly to exclude Muslims from the possibility of acquiring refugee status in India and, eventually, citizenship.
India’s 200 million Muslims view the measure as the government’s first step toward making them second-class citizens, and protests over the law have since been ongoing in the South Asian country.
The new protests were staged in the eastern city of Kolkata in India’s West Bengal State as well as in the southernmost state of Kerala, local sources said on Tuesday, with several other rallies planned in the capital, New Delhi, later in the day.
Authorities imposed internet blackouts and used force to shut down rallies and sit-ins across several states to quell the unrest.
Police said ten people had been arrested for rioting and mob violence on Tuesday.
Kolkata was also the scene of mass demonstrations on Monday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in a march led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a fierce critic of Modi.
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