Police, anti-CAA protesters spar in Guwahati; NESO, AJP to revive protests

A confrontation broke out Saturday between police and members of the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) in Guwahati during a black flag rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The situation heated up when AJP members took to the streets of Guwahati to voice their resentment against the act. Earlier in the day, the AJP and North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), the umbrella organisation of students associations of the northeastern states, staged a black flag protest at Shaheed Bhawan in Guwahati’s Uzanbazar area.

While NESO members hoisted black flags across the northeastern states, AJP members hit the streets with black flags and burnt the effigy of the CAA.

NESO advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said, “The sentiment against the CAA has been burning in the hearts of the indigenous people of the northeast. We will not be silent until the CAA is repealed. So, the movement in Assam and other northeastern states will continue.”

Bhattacharya added that the democratic protest and the legal battle against the CAA will continue side by side.

The North East Students’ Organisation had earlier decided to observe December 11 as a ‘black day’ in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.

Meanwhile, AJP chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi and former AASU leader, who was at the forefront of the anti-CAA protests in 2019, announced a series of protests to revamp the movement once again.

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