A view of the protest rally. Northeast Now

The Demow regional unit of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) staged a demonstration at Demow in Sivasagar district on Monday in protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government’s move to grant Indian citizenship to illegal migrants including Hindu Bangladeshis by implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.

The protesters demanded immediate withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of Assam on the basis of the Assam Accord, implementation of the Assam Accord, sealing of India-Bangladesh border and signing of a bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh for deportation of illegal Bangladeshis.

The protesters also took out a protest rally against the Bill from Demow Public Playground.

The protesters also shouted slogans like ‘Denounce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016’, ‘Hindu Bangladeshi Go Back’, ‘No Citizenship On the Basis of Religion’, ‘BJP Government Hai-Hai’ etc. during the protest programme.

AASU education secretary Sarat Hazarika, Sivasagar district unit AASU executive member and Demow Anchalik unit AASU advisor Aditya Sarma along with the president and secretary of Demow AASU joined the protest programme.

Moreover, around 2000 people including a large number of students also joined the protest programme on Monday.

Hitujwal Saikia is Northeast Now Correspondent in Demow. He can be reached at: hitujjalchetia@gmail.com