Yogi slams rivals for instigating people over CAA; no fresh protests in UP

The row over the amended citizenship law figured in the state assembly on Wednesday with chief minister Yogi Adityanath accusing rivals of "instigating" people even as no fresh protests were reported in the state. In Azamgarh, however, internet services were suspended for 48 hours after a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act turned violent on Tuesday evening.

Police said they used mild force to disperse some students of Jamia Ashrafia University and local people who hurled stones at them in Mubarakpur police station area in Azamgarh. District Magistrate Nagendra Pratap Singh had visited the scene and pacified the protestors.

"In view of the rumours on social media, internet services have been suspended in the district this afternoon for 48 hours," he said on Wednesday afternoon. Earlier on Monday evening, political workers and Shibli college students protested near the college where Mubarakpur BSP MLA Shah Alam (Guddu Jamali) was also present.

"Inflammatory speeches" were made during the protest, police alleged. The situation in the state was normal on Wednesday, officials said.

Five people, including former AIMIM district president Israr Ahmad, were arrested in Pratapgarh on Tuesday evening for violating prohibitory orders by holding a protest against the Act, police said. In the state assembly, Adityanath claimed there is mischief going on to create disturbances and that the name of a political party and an MLA has surfaced in the case of violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi.

"Some people go about speaking the language of Pakistan on CAA and this should not be accepted," he said, triggering loud protests from the Opposition benches. He claimed there is an attempt to instigate certain sections of society on the issue by misleading them and said such people need to be "exposed".

Meanwhile, in an open letter, AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor defended his decision to allow police into the campus when violence broke out on Sunday night. He said the "painful decision" to seek police help stemmed from the fact that the University authorities had received credible inputs that "lumpen and anti-social elements" from outside had started infiltrating the campus where peaceful protests were taking place.

"On Sunday night an angry mob running into thousands had collected inside the campus and was posing an imminent danger to the lives of the students and property of the university," he said. "Forced with no other choice, we had to call the police without any delay in a preemptive action, or else it would have led to a very grave situation," it added.

In Lucknow, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) chairman Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday said his party is against the amended law and accused the BJP of disrupting the country's peace and harmony. "Our party opposes the amended Citizenship Act, and we want that there should be peace and harmony in the country," Yadav told reporters at the party office in the state capital.

"But the work of disrupting this harmony being done by the BJP, which is in majority, will also be opposed by us," he added. The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who arrived in India till December 31, 2014 to escape religious persecution.