The North East Students’ Organization (NESO), the umbrella body of all major students’ associations of Northeast, on Saturday observed ‘Black Day’ in the region to protest against police atrocities.
The students’ body raised black flags and shouted anti-government slogans.
During an 11-hour shutdown called by the students’ bodies on January 8 against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, police had opened fire on protesters leaving at least 15 injured.
On January 11, police and authorities did not allow NESO office bearers to meet injured protesters in Agartala.
“We are observing Black Day to express our solidarity with the victims of police atrocity. We were also not allowed to meet and speak to the victims. This is very unfortunate,” said Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, NESO advisor.
Advertisement
He said that Tripura is an example of how the government wants to reduce indigenous communities to minority for vote-bank politics.
“We have seen it in Tripura today and the government wants to the same thing in Assam by implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016,” said Bhattacharya.
Meanwhile, six tribal parties led by the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) have called for a 12-hour shutdown in Tripura on Saturday to protest police firing.
They also demanded Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s resignation, a judicial probe by sitting High Court Judge, compensation of Rs 20 lakh or government jobs to the families of the injured youths.
Advertisement
“The BJP-led government’s police opened fire on unarmed innocent people while they were protesting against the Bill in a democratic manner. We have called for the ‘bandh’ to protest the firing,” INPT General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma told reporters.
Deb has already announced a magisterial probe into the incident alleging a conspiracy to destabilise the peace of the state and defame the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) government.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill provides for according Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014 after staying in the country for six years, instead of the current 12 years, even if they do not possess any documents.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 but the Rajya Sabha did not take it up in the just-concluded winter session.
