Anti-Muslim citizenship law: Modi attempts to drag Pakistan into conflict

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Violent protests against India’s citizenship law swept the country over the weekend and Narendra Modi government attempted to drag Pakistan into the conflict through ceasefire violations (CFVs) in Dewa sector and other areas along the Line of Control in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

In spite of the Indian government’s ban on public assembly and suspension of internet services in many parts, the nationwide death toll rose to 26 on Sunday.

Nine people died in clashes with police in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, said state police spokesman Pravin Kumar. He said most of the victims were young people but denied police were responsible.

“Some of them died of bullet injuries, but these injuries are not because of police fire. The police have used only tear gas to scare away the agitating mob,” he said. The demonstrations have been largely peaceful but protesters have also hurled rocks and torched vehicles, while heavy-handed police tactics including the storming of a Delhi university a week ago have fuelled anger.

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered late Saturday in the southern city of Hyderabad. Other protests took place on Sunday, including in Jaipur and Mumbai. Another in favour of the law was held in Bangalore.

Around a dozen vehicles were set on fire as protesters rampaged through the northern cities of Rampur, Sambhal, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore and Kanpur, where a police station was also torched.

The law gives religious minority members -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists -- from three neighbouring countries an easier path to citizenship, but not if they are Muslim.

More than 7,500 people have either been detained under emergency laws or arrested for rioting, according to state officials, with 5,000 in Uttar Pradesh state alone where 17 people have been killed. Some 500 people have also been injured in Uttar Pradesh including 263 police, while two people were shot dead in the southern state of Karnataka and six died in Assam in the northeast last week.

In New Delhi, police charged more than a dozen people with rioting in connection with violence during a protest on Friday night in the capital’s Daryaganj area.

In Assam, opponents of the legislation fear it will enable large numbers of Bengali-speaking immigrants, many of whom are Hindu, to settle there. But elsewhere, opponents say the law has made religion a test for citizenship ahead of a nationwide register that Modi wants to carry out by 2024 to remove all "infiltrators".

In most places, the demonstrations have been joined by people of all faiths, but Uttar Pradesh is a tinder-box for communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims, and authorities there have shut internet and mobile messaging services to prevent the circulation of inflammatory material.

More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested across India in the past 10 days, additionally, some 4,000 people have been detained and then released, the officials said.

The demonstrations have been largely peaceful but protesters have also hurled rocks and torched vehicles, while heavy-handed police tactics including the storming of a Delhi university a week ago have fuelled anger.

Authorities have imposed emergency laws, blocked internet access -- a common tactic in India -- and shut down shops in sensitive areas across the country in an attempt to contain the unrest.

More than 7,500 people have either been detained under emergency laws or arrested for rioting, according to state officials, with 5,000 in Uttar Pradesh state alone where 17 people have been killed.

Some 500 people have also been injured in Uttar Pradesh including 263 police, while two people were shot dead in the southern state of Karnataka and six died in Assam in the northeast last week.

Meanwhile, two US Democratic presidential candidates, Sen Elizabeth Warren and Sen Bernie Sanders, denounced the new law on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Pakistan warned the world on Sunday that while the international community was busy in Christmas preparations, Indian forces could stage a false flag operation to divert attention from its internal problems, especially deadly Indian police action against its peaceful Muslim demonstrators.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said India might carry out a false flag operation to divert the world attention from ongoing protests against the citizenship law.

He said the United Nations Security Council had been informed about Pakistan’s reservations about the Indian moves and clarified that any aggression from the archrival would be responded befittingly.

He urged the international community to take action against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nefarious plans.

The reaction came after the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said Indian posts had been damaged and heavy casualties of Indian soldiers had been reported in response to ceasefire violations (CFV) in Dewa sector.

The DG ISPR took to Twitter and stated, “Intermittent CFVs by Indian Army continue along the Line of Control (LoC) being befittingly responded.”

No major exchange of fire in Kiran or Neelum valley took place, as being propagated by the Indian media, said the post.

Qureshi said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was being requested to side with Pakistan if the Indian forces staged any false flag operation.

He said the OIC as well as the world bodies were continuously being updated about the Indian ceasefire violations at the LoC and the aggressive Indian designs.