12-hr bandh on Dec 27 to demand release of KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi

Guwahati: Demanding immediate release of Assam’s peasant 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.

Among the civil bodies that have extended their support to the 12-hour bandh called by KSUP are Asom Jatiyabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), Goria-Moria Yuba Chatra Parishad, youth body of the scheduled caste community, Asom Sangrami Yuba Chatra Santha and All Assam Unemployed Youth Organisation.

Earlier on December 17, prominent peasant leader and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) adviser Akhil Gogoi was arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Jorhat in Assam and was sent to a 10-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody by a special court in Guwahati.

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The leading RTI activist has been booked under Sections 120 B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 124 A (sedition), 153 A (unlawful association) and 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He has also been booked under Section 18/39 (punishment for conspiracy) of the UAPA.