Mobile internet has been cut off in 21 districts in Uttar Pradesh over concerns of further protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act erupting after the Friday prayers. Apart from internet suspension which is aimed at checking rumours, the police have also made strategic deployment in sensitive areas, state top cop OP Singh said.
Internet connectivity has been suspended in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor, Bulandshahar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Agra, Firozabad, Sambhal, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Rampur, Sitapur and Kanpur. Mobile Internet services and sms messages of all mobile service providers except BSNL were also suspended in state capital Lucknow, which witnessed clashes between the police and protesters last week.
More than 1,100 people have been arrested and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following violence in the state.
Restrictions have also been imposed in several sensitive areas of Delhi, including Seelampur where protests turned violent on December 17. Restrictions on assembly of four or more people are in place near Lal Quila, a large part of North East Delhi district and around UP Bhawan in anticipation of the protests.
Students of the Jamia Millia University have declared that they will picket the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan at 3 pm on Friday to protest "police atrocities" in the state.
The Citizenship Amendment Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.
