Stones, tear gas, bottles in Delhi protests over Citizenship law

The police on Tuesday fired tear gas shells on a crowd protesting against the amended Indian citizenship law in Seelampur area of the country's capital Delhi. 

The incident comes barely a day after the police swoop on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in south Delhi, reports Hindustan Times.

More than 1000 protesters had come out on the streets at around 2 pm and threw stones and glass bottles at the police. In retaliation, the police teargassed the protesters.

Peaceful protests were going on in the area since the past two days. Locals in the area allege that a group of 10 or 20 people vandalised a school bus and the police swung into action.

The entry and exit at Seelampur and Gokulpuri metro stations are closed, said the DMRC. Also the gates at Welcome, Jaffrabad, Maujpur-Babarpur metro stations have been shut in view of protests.

Two buses (one DTC bus and a private one) were vandalised in the protest.

On Monday, Prime Minister Modi called violent protests on the new citizenship law “unfortunate and deeply distressing” and asked people not to let what he described as “vested interest groups” create a divide in society.

Shortly after, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi led a two-hour protest at the India Gate and said the crackdown on students in Delhi was an “attack on the soul of India”.

There has been an eruption of protests in university campuses and in several cities over the new law which grants citizenship to undocumented non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who allegedly fled those countries fearing religious persecution and returned to India on or before December 31, 2014.