Protests continue in Assam over citizenship law

Описание: (17 Dec 2019) Protests continued in India's northeastern state of Assam on Tuesday against a new law giving citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India illegally to flee religious persecution.
  
The law’s passage has triggered protests across the country but Assam has seen the highest level of violence.
  
Assam police officials say officers shot dead five protesters in the state capital of Guwahati while attempting to restore order to a city that has been engulfed in demonstrations since last week.
Samujjal Bhattacharya, a student leader, said on Tuesday that protestors are committed to conducting a "non-violent, disciplined" demonstration.
The new law follows a contentious citizenship registry process in northeastern India's Assam state intended to weed out people who entered the country illegally.
Nearly 2 million people in Assam were excluded from the list, about half Hindu and half Muslim, and have been asked to prove their citizenship or else be considered foreign.
India is building a detention centre for some of the tens of thousands of people the courts are expected to ultimately determine have entered illegally.
Amit Shah, the home minister, has pledged to roll out the programme nationwide, promising to rid India of “infiltrators."

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