Guwahati: Barely hours after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha, normal life was paralysed in Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley where a dawn-to-dusk bandh was called by the powerful All Assam Students Union (AASU) on Tuesday.
However, the bandh failed to evoke much impact in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley and the two autonomous hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.
Amid the ongoing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the National Award-winning filmmaker Jahnu Barua on Tuesday decided not to participate in the 8th Assam State Film Awards and Film Festival 2019, that is due to take place in Guwahati on December 26-27. In a major setback for the film festival, Barua, one of Assam’s top filmmakers, also decided to withdraw his film Bhonga Khirikee (Broken Window) from being screened at the festival. Barua was not the only artiste, many other artists, singers and musicians came out on the streets of Guwahati to register their musical protest by singing motivational songs against the CAB.
In the city’s Maligaon area, a government-run bus was pelted with stones and a scooter set on fire. Shops, markets and business establishments kept their shutters down, while educational institutions and banks remained closed for the day.
The protesters, raising slogans against the CAB, took out marches in different areas of Guwahati. Security sources said they were forced to change the route of several VIPs including ministers to avoid any clash.
The agitators also had a scuffle with the security forces near the Secretariat and Assembly in Guwahati, as they were prevented from entering the high-security zone.
Train services across Assam were affected as picketers squatted on the tracks, a railway spokesperson said.
Vehicles — both private and public — stayed off the roads, official sources said, adding that government-run Assam State Transport Corporation buses plied between Guwahati city and the airport here, with police escorts. All scheduled exams were rescheduled by universities in view of the bandh.
