Assam on the boil, two dead in police firing as hundreds defy curfew

Sound of gunshots at a little distance and a narrow alley inside Guwahati’s GS Road echoed with shrieks of ‘f**k you, f**k you’. This was just around the time the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (December 11) passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Hours before that, the city’s arterial road, GS Road (Guwahati-Shillong Road) witnessed some unprecedented scenes – throngs of people hitting the streets with cries of ‘BJP Go back’, ‘CAB namanu’ (won’t accept CAB), ‘Ulai Aah’ (come out of your homes, a slogan that drove the six-year long Assam Agitation of 1979-1985) against illegal immigrants.

At least two persons died due to bullet injuries on Thursday after police opened fire on protesters. An official of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital said one person was brought dead and the other succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment.

Meanwhile, protestors set on fire a bus terminus of the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) in Dibrugarh, official sources said. A large number of people reached the ASTC terminus at the Chowkidingi area of the city and vandalised the complex and set it on fire, they said. Army and fire tenders were rushed to the spot and they doused the flames without much damage, a senior district official was quoted by news agencies.

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The protests started on Wednesday with a bunch of college students laying siege to GS Road. By afternoon, traffic was brought to a standstill by the sea of protesters marching towards the state secretariat.  Security forces retaliated with lathicharge and tear gas following some incidents of vandalism. But this didn’t stop the people. Instead, more and more started to pour out on the streets and joined the protests.

Wednesday’s outpourings on the streets were not formally organised as none of the organisations, including the powerful All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), gave a call for protests. Yet when people came out on their own, there was no stopping anyone. Rest of the state, especially upper Assam towns witnessed similar scenes – protestors taking to the streets without any formal call. Some even braved rubber bullets in Dibrugarh.

By late afternoon, the city was put under indefinite curfew with Army columns flag-marching through sensitive areas. (Five columns of army have been deployed in the state, two of them in Guwahati). Curfew was imposed in Dibrugarh too with protesters pelting stones at Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s house and gheraoing the residence of Union MoS Rameshwar Teli.

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By dusk, a state government notification started circulating on WhatsApp about suspension of mobile internet services from 24 hours from 7pm on Wednesday in 10 districts — Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup (Metro) and Kamrup.

All this only seemed to strengthen the resolve of the crowd who despite braving police batons and tear gas, kept on coming back. Security forces had to resort to firing in the air a number of times across various locations as protesters kept regrouping.

While such heavy security presence and imposition of curfew should ideally have kept the protesters at bay, Thursday morning saw more number of people defying the curfew in Guwahati and joining the protests. While the army has been deployed in four areas of Assam, there have been reports of clashes between policemen and protesters at various places.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Thursday morning tweet, saying that people of Assam have nothing to worry about after the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill has further infuriated the people who by now feel completely abandoned by the BJP government both at the Centre and the state. “No one can take away your rights,” the Prime Minister wrote.

While AASU and Akhil Gogoi-led Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a peasant organisation based in Assam, asked people to step out of their homes, thousands thronged Guwahati’s Latasil Ground. Singer-actor and Assamese hearthrob Zubeen Garg exhorted the crowd to continue the protests, but peacefully. Last evening, Garg urged everyone to assemble at Latasil Ground at 11am on Thursday for “protecting and keeping Assamese identity and culture alive.”

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“Mobile internet will be snapped from 7 pm today. Before that, spread the message as much as you can,” he wrote on his Facebook wall.

Addressing the crowd this morning, he said, “We won’t accept CAB and will continue our fight but peacefully. Some miscreant elements have entered these protest demonstrations and are trying to dilute the cause with violence and vandalism. But we don’t want violence. We want what belongs to us.”

Garg had earlier appealed to actor and BJP member Jatin Bora to quit the party in protest against the bill. On Thursday, Bora resigned from the BJP. Another popular actor Ravi Sharma had resigned from the BJP on December 9.

As the GS Road continued to echo with cries of protestors, internet services have been suspended in 10 districts in Assam for another 48 hours, beginning from noon on Thursday, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Political) Kumar Sanjay Krishna said. As a fallout of the protests, the Assam government on Thursday replaced Guwahati police chief Deepak Kumar with Munna Prasad Gupta, a 1995-batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

The Assam government has also transferred four deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) posted in Guwahati. Meanwhile, schools will remain shut till December 22 while Gauhati University (GU), Cotton University (CU) and Dibrugarh University (DU) on Wednesday postponed all exams, scheduled to be held till December 16.

The Railways has suspended all local train services in Assam as well as Tripura, and short-terminated long-distance trains at Guwahati following protests in the two states. Flights too were cancelled to and from Dibrugarh.

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Unconfirmed reports said the proposed meet between Modi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Guwahati to be held on December 15 may have been cancelled/postponed due to ongoing protests. A change of venue to Delhi’s Hyderabad House is also under consideration.

Old-timers claimed protests of such a magnitude was unseen since Assam agitation by students that ended with the signing of the Assam accord. “I haven’t seen anything of this sort in many, many years. But what other options do we have,” said 73-year-old Binapani Choudhury, a resident of Uzan Bazar near Latasil Ground. Police reportedly opened fire in Lalung Gaon area in Guwahati after stones were hurled by protestors. Agitators claim at least four people injured in the shooting, said the PTI.

Assam CM Sarbananada Sonowal, considered a Jatiyanayak (national/community hero after the Supreme Court scrapped the Illegal Migrants’ Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act following his petition), said, “I sincerely appeal to all sections of people of Assam to maintain peace and tranquility. It’s our cultural, social and spiritual tradition. I’ve firm belief that people of Assam, as usual, will maintain peace for all time to come,” he tweeted.

But most don’t seem to be in the mood to listen to their leaders who have “betrayed” them.

“BJP promised us to get rid of the burden of illegal immigrants. Then why is it piling more on us?” questioned Deepak, a student of Cotton University.

Deepak’s neighbour Santwana regretted her decision of voting for the BJP. ‘The biggest mistake of my life,” she lamented as the tiny bylane where she lives reverberated with cries of ‘Ulai Aah’.

The BJP, she added, has ripped open many old wounds that were slowly healing.