Satyagraha begins in Assam

Guwahati: Continuing their peaceful agitation against the Citizenship Act, hundreds of people led by Aasu chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi courted arrest in front of deputy commissioner’s office in Guwahati.

However, protestors who were arrested for the day were released within two hours of their arrest as makeshift jail became overcrowded and police was compelled to release them to accommodate the protesters who came in large number to court arrest.

The Aasu’s three-day ‘Satyagraha’ began in the morning and the leaders addressed the protesters  at the Latasil playground before beginning a march towards the deputy commissioner’s office.

“We have information that we might be arrested but we want to make it clear that our slogan is —Withdraw CAA or arrest us,” Bhattacharya said in his address to the protesters. He urged the protesters to “march in pairs and be disciplined as our protest is non-violent”.

The protesters were taken into custody when their rally reached near the Dighalipukhuri area, the officials said.

“The AASU leaders themselves courted arrest along with the other protesters but they have been released now,” Guwahati Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta told reporters.

They were taken into custody and kept in a makeshift jail at Dighalipukhuri, he added.

Students, senior citizens, teachers, lawyers, doctors, litterateurs, singers, musicians and actors were among those who took part in the protest march.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition in Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia has sought an inquiry by a sitting Justice of the Gauhati High Court into the violence by protesters and security personnel.