MEERUT/LUCKNOW:India deployed thousands of police and shut down mobile internet servicesacross many cities to control protests against a new citizenship law, withflashpoint Friday prayers passing largely peacefully. Security was particularlytight in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where 19 people have been killedsince the protests began on Dec. 12, out of at least 25 deaths nationwide.
Authorities hadfeared that large crowds could gather after the weekly Muslim congregationalprayers. Demonstrations were held after Friday prayers in the cities of Delhi,Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai, but there were no major reports of violence asof 1200 GMT. In Meerut, where five people were killed after violence lastFriday, there were no gatherings. Nearly 3,000 police were deployed, four timesmore than last week, the city's police chief told Reuters.
The legislationmakes it easier for minorities from India's Muslim majority neighbors -Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - who settled before 2015 to getcitizenship but does not make the same concessions for Muslims. Critics say thelaw - and plans for a national citizenship register - discriminate againstMuslims and are an attack on the country's secular constitution by the Hindunationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The governmenthas said no citizen will be affected and that there are no imminent plans for aregister. On Friday, mobile internet services were ordered shut in many partsof Utter Pradesh, including in the provincial capital Luck now, the stategovernment said.
In the nationalcapital New Delhi, police imposed an emergency law in some parts of the city,forbidding large gatherings, news channels reported. Such prohibitions havebeen in place in Uttar Pradesh for more than a week. Thousands ofdemonstrators, waving Indian flags and holding placards rejecting the new law,protested peacefully in Bengaluru city amid a heavy police presence.
"I am herebecause the NRC is wrong," said Iqbal Ahmed, 42, a Muslim carpet sellerand one of the protesters, referring to the register of citizens.
"This is ourland and I am from here... Are we not Indian?" Muslims, India's secondbiggest community by religion, account for about 14 percent of its 1.3 billionpeople. Some parts of the country also saw rallies in favor of the newcitizenship law but were outnumbered by demonstrations and protests against thelegislation.
Meanwhile, thechief minister of India's Uttar Pradesh state has rebuffed accusations fromrights groups of police abuses during protests against a new citizenship law,crediting his tough stand with restoring calm to the streets. The northernstate has seen the most violent turmoil over Prime.
The state's chiefminister, Yogi Adityanath, a hardline Hindu priest who belongs to Modi's Hindunationalist party, said his tough policies had ended the trouble. "Everyrioter is shocked. Every troublemaker is astonished.
Looking at thestrictness of the Yogi government, everyone is silent," one ofAdityanath's verified official accounts on Twitter said late on Friday."Do whatever you want to, but the damages will be paid by those who causedamages," it added. Last week, his government said it was demandingmillions of rupees from more than 200 people, threatening to confiscate theirproperty to pay for damage during the protests.
Rights groupshave decried what they say have been mass detentions and excessive force in thestate, where officers have arrested more than 1,000 people. The government hassaid no citizen will be affected and there is no imminent plans for a register.But a video circulating on social media is likely to compound the concerns ofthose worried about the plight of Muslims. It shows a senior UP police officertelling a demonstrator to "go to Pakistan if you don't want to livehere".
The official,Akhilesh Narayan Singh, told Reuters that some protesters had been shoutingpro-Pakistan slogans. "It is in this situation I told them to go toPakistan," he said on Saturday. Officials from the opposition Congressparty were set to lead protests on Saturday under the slogan "SaveConstitution-Save India". "They can punish us, throw us in jail,siphon our property but they will not be able to stop us from continuing ourprotest," said Akhilesh Tomar, a student activist who has teamed up withthe Congress to coordinate protests in four Muslim-dominated districts of UP.
Protests werealso planned in the northeastern state of Assam, where migration has long beenan emotive political issue, with protesters expecting increasing turnout insmaller towns. Meanwhile, Hindu activists associated with Modi's party wereconducting workshops in slums in an effort to ease public discontent. "Wehave to explain the facts to the common people who are being misled against thelaw by the opposition," said Ram Naresh Tanwar, a member of a group calledthe Hindu Jagran Samiti, or Hindu awareness committee, in New Delhi. - Reuters