GUWAHATI: Internet access was cut in India’s northeastern city of Guwahati on Friday as thousands gathered for fresh protests against a new citizenship law, a day after police shot dead two demonstrators.
Protests erupted this week after the government introduced new legislation that many in the far-flung northeast believe will give citizenship to immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, and which other critics say is anti-Muslim.
On Friday morning thousands gathered in central Guwahati as riot police looked on, with residents hurrying out to buy essentials.
No fresh violence was reported but Guwahati and other areas remained littered from the detritus of recent days, with some roads blocked by fallen trees, concrete poles, stones and iron railings. Many cash machines have run out of cash and most petrol stations were also shut.
A local government official said that Internet access in the Guwahati, the main city of Assam state, had been cut and an AFP reporter confirmed that connections appeared to have been suspended.
The Meghalaya state government has also cut off mobile Internet, with parts of the capital Shillong brought under curfew since Thursday evening.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was planning to scrap a visit to the city due to begin on Sunday as the security situation deteriorated, media reported Friday. The Japanese leader had been slated to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Thursday, police had fired live and blank rounds as thousands of demonstrators in Guwahati and elsewhere took to the streets, some vandalising property and torching vehicles.
The two demonstrators killed in the city were among around 20 people being treated in hospital, “a few” of whom had gunshot wounds, said Ramen Talukdar, a doctor at a Guwahati hospital.
Hundreds of passengers stuck at Guwahati airport were brought to the city on government buses with police escort in the early hours of Friday morning.
Several thousand troops have been drafted in to help police, who fired tear gas and charged demonstrators with batons, in recent days.
Security was increased at the Bangladeshi consulate in Guwahati after a vehicle in the consul’s convoy was attacked Wednesday by mobs, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said.
“They cant settle anyone in our motherland. This is unacceptable. We will die but not allow outsiders to settle here,” Manav Das, a protester told AFP on Friday.
“We will defeat the government with the force of the people and the government will be forced to revoke the law,” said local activist Samujal Battacharya.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), signed into law by the Indian president late Thursday, allows for the fast-tracking of applications from religious minorities from three neighboring countries, but not Muslims.
For Islamic groups, the opposition and rights groups, it is part of Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims. He denies this.
The US State Department on Thursday urged India to “protect the rights of its religious minorities,” according to Bloomberg.
But many in India’s northeast object for different reasons, fearing that immigrants from Bangladesh — many of them Hindus — will become citizens, taking jobs and weakening the local culture.
The chief ministers of the states of Punjab in the north and Kerala in the south also said that they would not implement the law, the Hindu daily reported.
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India shuts down Internet in hotspot after deadly protests
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India shuts down Internet in hotspot after deadly protests
- Protests erupted this week after the government introduced new legislation that many in the far-flung northeast believe will give citizenship to immigrants
- On Friday morning thousands gathered in central Guwahati as riot police looked on
BBC slammed for ‘shameful’ cut to ‘free Palestine’ comment at BAFTA Awards
- Broadcaster removes from broadcast part of filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s acceptance speech at the British Academy Film Awards
- Amnesty UK praises filmmaker for speaking up for those ‘facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities’
LONDON: The BBC was accused on Monday of a “shameful” decision after it cut part of an acceptance speech at the previous night’s British Academy Film Awards in which a filmmaker uttered the phrase “free Palestine.”
British-Nigerian director and co-writer Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother, co-writer Wale Davies were collecting the award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for their film “My Father’s Shadow” when the former made the comment.
The BBC chose not to include the final part of his speech when it broadcast the BAFTAs ceremony later in the evening. However, the corporation did broadcast an inadvertent racist slur shouted by a person with Tourette syndrome while Black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award.
Akinola thanked industry figures and family for their support as he accepted the award, before dedicating it to “all those whose parents migrated to obtain a better life for their children.”
In the final part of his speech, cut by the BBC, he said: “To the economic migrant, the conflict migrant, those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide, you matter and your stories matter more than ever.
“Your dreams are an act of resistance. To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, free Palestine. Thank you.”
The BBC, which broadcast the ceremony with a two-hour time delay, said the cut was made for timing reasons.
A spokesperson told Deadline: “The live event is three hours, and it has to be reduced to two hours for its on-air slot. The same happened to other speeches made during the night, and all edits were made to ensure the program was delivered to time. All winners’ speeches will be available to watch via BAFTA’s YouTube Channel.”
Human rights campaign group Amnesty UK described the decision by the BBC to cut part of the speech as “shameful.”
It added: “Thank you Akinola Davies Jr. for using your platform to speak out for the rights of migrants and people facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities, from the Congo to Sudan to Palestine.”
In June last year, the BBC was at the center of a row after it broadcast a Glastonbury Festival performance by the duo Bob Vylan, during which the lead singer chanted “death to the IDF” in protest against the Israeli Defense Forces’ assault on Gaza.
