Citizenship Amendment Act issue : 20 held on sedition charges

Azamgarh : Police have booked 135 people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act for sedition and arrested 20 of them in the city's Bilariaganj area. In the FIR, only 35 people have been named and the rest are unidentified, police said.

The FIR lists sedition among the charges. The protesters accused the police of thrashing them.

Police, however, said they used tear gas shells to tackle the protesters when they became unruly. "The FIR has been registered against 35 named and over 100 unidentified persons involved in anti-CAA protests on Tuesday near Jauhar park in Bilariaganj area.

Of them 20 have been arrested," Superintendent of Police, Triveni Singh, said He said Tuesday's protest against the CAA was led by Ulema Council national general secretary Tahir Madni, who was arrested on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, when 101- year old Harohalli Srinivasaiah Doreswamy ended his fast at Freedom Park in Bengaluru after a satyagraha against the controversial CAA and proposed India-wide NRC on January 5, citizens across the country hailed him for his relentless spirit.

A month later, Doreswamy once again decided to lead from the front and called for a five-day protest at Bengaluru's Town Hall to shed light on the central governments alleged failures. However, on reaching the venue, the centenarian was told that he wasn't granted permission and would have to change the venue of his protest.

Undeterred, Doreswamy sat on the steps of the town hall and decided that the protest must go on. "We have decided to sit here till 3pm as nobody is occupying this venue till then. If they move us from here, we will go to the DCP's office and stage a dharna there till they give us permission", he said.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said the "majority community" has to remain vigilant or "Mughal rule" will return to the country, as he criticised the protests against the CAA at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh.

Referring to the protest at Shaheen Bagh against the CAA, he said, "Unless majority community remains vigilant, the days of Mughal Raj may not be far away."

The CAA, he said, was aimed at resolving the issues that was left over from the Partition. "The new India cannot be built without healing the wounds of the past."

He said the CAA was about giving citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and not for taking away anyone's citizenship.

Under the leadership of PM Modi, Surya said, several issues of the past have seen closure. These include abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram temple, solving Bodo problems and abolition of "triple talaq".