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Thousands of Muslims Hit the Streets in India’s Mumbai in Protest Against Citizenship Law - Photos

© REUTERS / FRANCIS MASCARENHASDemonstrators walk during a protest march against a new citizenship law, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, December 18, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
Demonstrators walk during a protest march against a new citizenship law, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, December 18, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas - Sputnik International
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New Delhi (Sputnik): Protests over the Citizen Amendment Act, which allows citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim immigrants such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, haven’t stopped in India. A day after a Muslim-dominated area of Delhi witnessed clashes, Mumbai saw a massive march.

Streets of Mumbai, the biggest financial hub of India, witnessed a massive protest by members of the Muslim community on Wednesday, as thousands of people took to the streets to voice their protest against the contentious Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The protest was staged in Mumbra, a predominantly Muslim township near Mumbai.

A large number of burqa-clad women participated in the protest, carrying placards and banners.

​The protesters alleged that the two measures, referring to NRC and CAA, were designed to divide Hindus and Muslims in the country.

​Meanwhile, in India’s national capital city of Delhi many residents, students, and alumni of different universities continue to protest outside India’s premier Jamia Millia Islamia University, which witnessed violent clashes between students and police on Sunday. Over 100 people, including policemen, were injured.

Kanhaiya Kumar, a well-known Narendra Modi-critic and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student union president, has also joined the protesters at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

​A public call for a nationwide protest by people, students, and communist parties has been made against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed NRC for Thursday. However, Delhi Police have denied permission for the protest march scheduled to be organised in the national capital, citing law and order issues in the city.

Protests over the new citizenship law and NRC initially began in the north-eastern region of the country, where the general public is protesting, citing ethnicity issues. In other parts of the country, a lot of people and students are protesting it for being discriminatory against Muslims.

The CAA grants citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities – Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan if they arrived in India prior to 2015, but excludes Muslims.

Regarding the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), a big section of Muslims fear that when the NRC is launched across India, only Muslims will have to prove their citizenship and not people of any other faith, i.e. Hindus and others.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, however, has clarified that no citizen of India has to fear the new law or the NRC. 

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