Anti-CAA Protests: Home Minister Amit Shah To Chair Emergency Meeting On Nationwide Stir

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair an emergency meeting to review the security situation in the country on Thursday evening amid violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, sources said. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla are expected to attend the meeting.

The prevailing situation of the country will be reviewed threadbare by the Home Ministry in the meeting, the officials said. 

Defying unprecedented prohibitory orders across regions, simultaneous protests broke out on Thursday in multiple cities against the newly amended Citizenship Law, prompting authorities to detain a large number of activists and students and clamp down on mobile services in parts of the national capital and other states.

While the protests remained largely peaceful at most places with the agitators depending on slogans and placards to express their opposition to the new law and what they called 'barbaric police action' against students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, there were reports of violent clashes and arson in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Karnataka, Rail and road traffic was hit across several states.

Barricades by police in and around the national capital, closing of Delhi Metro gates at several stations and an unprecedented suspension of mobile voice, messaging and internet services in parts of Delhi added to the woes.

Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Nilotpal Basu and Brinda Karat, activist Yogendra Yadav and historian Ramchandra Guha were among those who were detained for taking part in the anti-citizenship law stir for defying prohibitory orders. Guha was later released.

The law has been amended to enable grant of speedier citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they had to leave their respective countries due to religious persecution.

(With PTI inputs)