Citizenship (Amendment) Bill: 5,000 paramilitary personnel sent to northeast in wake of protests
The Centre on Wednesday airlifted 5,000 paramilitary personnel to Northeastern states, including Assam, for maintenance of law and order duties in wake protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which is being debated in Parliament, officials said. Nearly 20 companies (2,000 personnel) have been withdrawn from Kashmir, where they had been sent prior to the Centre's decision on August 5 to abrogate Article 370 provisions and split the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
The remaining 30 companies have been withdrawn from other places and rushed to Northeastern states, the officials said.
The troops are from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
In the meanwhile, The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) has cancelled many trains and rescheduled a few that originated from Assam. At least 14 trains have either been cancelled, short terminated or diverted anticipating "disruptions in train movement," NF Railway chief public relations officer Subhanan Chanda said in a statement.
Out of these, eight trains have been "completely" cancelled, while the rest have been short terminated, the statement further stated.
The Bill, which was passed in the lower house of Parliament with 311 votes in favour of, and 80 against it on Monday, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains from three neighbouring countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. According to the proposed legislation, non-Muslim migrants who fled their respective countries and came to India before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution, will be given Indian citizenship.
(With PTI inputs)
MUST READ | Explained: What is Citizenship (Amendment) Bill? And why are people of North-East protesting it?
ALSO READ | Citizenship (Amendment) Bill: Northeast Frontier Railway cancels, reschedules several trains
