As Anti-CAA Stir Turns Violent in Azamgarh, CM Yogi Says ‘Pak Language’ Used to Instigate Protesters

Lucknow/Aligarh: The controversy over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) figured prominently in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath accused "some people" of speaking "Pakistan's language" to instigate sections of society over the legislation.

While a protest against the amended citizenship law turned violent in Azamgarh where internet services were then suspended for 48 hours, there was no significant protest in any other part of the state on Wednesday.

In a reference to protests over CAA, Adityanath claimed there is mischief going on to create disturbances and that the name of a political party and an MLA has surfaced in the case of violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi.

Meanwhile, a protest against the amended Citizenship Act turned violent in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, with police saying it used mild force to disperse the agitators who hurled stones at them.

The authorities suspended internet services for 48 hours, officials said on Wednesday.

Police said that some students of Jamia Ashrafia University and locals held a protest on Tuesday evening in the Mubarakpur police station area against the changes in law pertaining to citizenship in the country.

They said the protestors raised slogans and police teams rushed there to control the situation but they were allegedly subjected to brick-batting.

The protesters targeted the police with stones and the police used lenient force to disperse them, according to video footage from the protest.

District Magistrate Nagendra Pratap Singh visited the scene and pacified the protestors.

"In view of the rumours going on on social media, internet services have been suspended in the district this afternoon for 48 hours," he said this afternoon.

The situation elsewhere in the state was normal on Wednesday, officials said.

Earlier on Monday evening, political workers and Shibli college students protested near the college where Mubarakpur BSP MLA Shah Alam (Guddu Jamali) was also present.

"Inflammatory speeches" were made during the protest, police alleged.

In a related development, five persons were arrested in Pratapgarh on Tuesday evening for violating prohibitory orders by holding a protest against the Act, police said.

Police said that among the five arrested include Israr Ahmad, former district president of AIMIM.

In an open letter addressed to the students and the AMU community at large, Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor explained that the "painful decision" to seek the help of the police on Sunday night stems from the fact that on that evening the University authorities had received credible inputs that "lumpen and anti-social elements from outside the campus had started infiltrating the campus where peaceful protests against the Act had been taking place".

"On Sunday night an angry mob running into thousands had collected inside the campus and was posing an imminent danger to the lives of the students and property of the university," he said.

The letter further said, "Forced with no other choice, we had to call the police without any delay in a preemptive action, or else it would have led to a very grave situation."

In Lucknow, Chairman of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday said that his party is against the amended Citizenship Act and accused the BJP of disrupting the country's peace and harmony.

"Our party opposes the amended Citizenship Act, and we want that there should be peace and harmony in the country," Yadav told reporters at the party office in the state capital.

"But, the work of disrupting this harmony being done by the BJP, which is in majority, will also be opposed by us," he added.

The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who arrived in India till December 31, 2014 to escape religious persecution.