Curfew defied in Guwahati, Assam continues to burn

Tens of thousand people poured out to defy the curfew in Guwahati as Assam continue to burn as spontaneous but unprecedented protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill has erupted all over the state.

An unprecedented outpouring of anger against the CAB has taken the state government off guard as the Assam Police was at a loss as throughout the Brahmaputra Valley violence erupted beside peaceful protest.

The Government machinery has completely broken down and all the ministers and MLAs were in hiding as angry mobs in almost all the major towns of Upper Assam and Guwahati taken over the street, fighting pitched battles with army and police.

The State Government has called for a meeting of the Unified Command and is hading over the law and order to the Unified Command. Under the Command, although the Chief Secretary is the head operational command remains with the army.

The police were guarding the AGP  and BJP office as angry protestors were in a lookout to burn the main state offices of the ruling parties. All the party leadership are in hiding.

Interestingly the protest was not organised and no organisation could take the lead.

This morning thousands of people of Guwahati came out unitedly from every corner of the city, walked long distances, braved barricades, fight battles with police, paramilitary forces and the army to defy the curfew. Never in the history of India people of a city so defiantly broken the curfew and forced the authorities to rescind.

Addressing thousands of people gathered in the Lataseel field, AASU adviser Dr Samujjal Kr Bhattacharya announced that CAB would never be accepted and the ongoing spontaneous protest was a response to the arrogance of the BJP.

Meanwhile, Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi urged the people of Assam to restrain as today general people fought with the army and paramilitary forces and walked long distances to break the curfew, something not heard in many parts of the country.

Assam Chief Minster Sarbandanda Sonowal also today urged for peace but the protests have been pouring in all over the state and often the ruling party, its members and RSS offices were the targets.

At least two RSS offices were burnt down, there were reports of firings from all over upper Assam. Assam Chief Minister's main legal adviser and senior BJP leader Shantanu Bharali's house at Silpukhuri was also vandalised.

The protestors were completely unorganized and spontaneous and do not belong to any organizations. Protestors included women; aged people, retired govt. officers and bulk of them were students. However, at night even the businessmen and private sector employees came out and literally lit fires in every major road of Guwahati city.