Disquiet has been growing about the citizenship law (STR)
<p>New Delhi (AFP) – Thousands of people joined fresh rallies against a contentious citizenship law in India on Saturday, with 21 killed so far in this month’s unrest.</p><p>The death toll jumped after demonstrations turned violent on Friday in the most populous state Uttar Pradesh, leaving at least 11 dead including an eight-year-old boy, who was trampled.</p><p>Another protester died Saturday after clashes in Rampur, also in Uttar Pradesh, as police used tear gas and batons against a stone-pelting crowd, police told AFP.</p><p>Disquiet has been growing about the law, which was passed by parliament on December 11 and gives people from persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries an easier path to citizenship — but not if they are Muslim.</p><p>Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims and is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda, a claim his political party has denied.</p><p>Authorities have scrambled to contain the situation — imposing emergency laws, blocking internet access, and shutting down shops in sensitive areas across the country.</p><p>Demonstrators have vowed to keep up their fight until the law is revoked.</p><p>Protests were held Saturday in numerous states, including in the cities of Chennai, Gurgaon and Guwahati.</p><p>As day broke in the capital New Delhi, demonstrators held up their mobile phones as torches at India’s biggest mosque Jama Masjid in a show of dissent.</p><p>In Patna in the eastern state of Bihar, three demonstrators suffered bullet wounds and six were hurt from stone-pelting after clashing with counter-protesters, police said.</p><p>At an all-women protest in Assam state’s Guwahati city in the northeast — where the wave of protests started amid fears the immigrants would dilute their local cultures — participants said it was time to speak up.</p><p>"We came out to fight for our motherland, we came to fight without any arms and ammunition, we will fight peacefully," Lily Dutta told AFP.</p><p></p><p>- ‘Stampede-like situation’ -</p><p></p><p>Since being re-elected this year Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have stripped Muslim-majority Kashmir of its autonomy and carried out a register of citizens in Assam.</p><p>The BJP has said it wants to conduct the National Register of Citizens (NRC) nationwide, fuelling fears Muslims — a 200-million minority in India — were being disenfranchised.</p><p>BJP’s general secretary Bhupender Yadav told reporters Saturday the party would "launch an awareness campaign" and hold 1,000 rallies to dispel "lies" about the law.</p><p>In northern Uttar Pradesh, Muslims make up almost 20 percent of the 200-million population. The state’s police spokesman Shirish Chandra told AFP 10 people died Friday after being shot.</p><p>The boy also died Friday in a "stampede-like situation" when 2,500 people including children joined a rally in the holy city of Varanasi, district police chief Prabhakar Chaudhary told AFP.</p><p>The unrest had already seen one death in Uttar Pradesh, two in the southwestern state of Karnataka and six in Assam.</p><p>On Saturday police erected barricades along Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, an avenue that in recent years has been a hotspot for protests.</p><p>It came after street battles broke out on Friday evening in Delhi with police firing a water cannon and baton-charging protesters, who chanted anti-Modi slogans and threw stones.</p><p>An AFP reporter at the scene saw protesters, including children, being detained and beaten by police.</p><p>Forty people were taken into custody, including at least eight under 18 years old, police told AFP Saturday, adding that most of them were released. </p><p>Sixteen others were arrested over charges of violence, the police spokesman added.</p><p>Delhi’s chief metropolitan magistrate late Friday had ordered the release of everyone under 18 who was detained.</p><p>The leader of a prominent organisation in the Dalit community — the lowest group in the Hindu caste system — who joined the Delhi demonstrators was arrested Saturday, police added.</p><p>On Saturday, distraught families and lawyers waited outside a police station in Old Delhi where nearly dozen people were being held.</p><p></p>

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.