GUWAHATI, Dec 7 - With the first anniversary of enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 drawing closer, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) is going to organise a statewide protest on December 12 against the contentious legislation as well as police atrocities on protestors during the last year�s anti-CAA agitation.
The Rajya Sabha on December 11, 2019 had passed the the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, triggering a massive protest in Assam and the Northeast. Earlier, on December 9, 2019, the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha�s winter session. The Bill received President�s assent on December 12.
Even if the intensity of protests suffered a setback with the outbreak of COVID-19, the AASU and a number of other organisations have been demanding the repeal of the legislation. AASU�s �Gana Hunkar� protest planned on December 12 would be held in all the districts of the State, where traditional and folk musical instruments would be played as a mark of protest.
�Not just the government imposed this anti-Assam legislation on us last year, but it also barbarically tried to crush the people�s agitation through police atrocities. Five innocent people, including a school student, were killed in the police firing on the protestors. The families of these martyrs are yet to get justice,� AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath and general secretary Sankor Jyoti Baruah said here today.
The student body also demanded justice for Sam Stafford, Dipanjal Das, Ishwar Nayak, Abdul Alim and Dwijendra Panging, who lost their lives during the protests.
�In the days to come, AASU and its allied 30 indigenous bodies would chalk out elaborate plans to exert pressure on the government to repeal the Act. However, on December 12 next, all the district AASU units would stage protests at public places with photographs of the martyrs of anti-CAA movement,� the AASU leaders stated.
The student body reiterated that it would never accept the CAA which is both unconstitutional and against the interest of the indigenous people of Assam.
