Protesters clash with cops in Indian South Delhi over Citizenship Law

GBnews24desk//

Violence broke out in Delhi this evening as students from the Jamia Millia Islamia gathered to protest the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.

Delhi Police and protesters engaged in a pitched battle in a posh South Delhi neighbourhood with cops using tear gas and resorting to lathi-charges after protesters broke cars and set at least three buses on fire.

Photo: ndtv.com

The cops have taken momentary control of the area, which now resembles a war zone, and are trying to push protesters back to the university.

In response to the violence in and around New Friends Colony, an expensive residential colony in the national capital, Delhi Traffic Police has closed vehicular movement from Okhla Underpass to Sarita Vihar.

Protests also led to blocked tracts of the Delhi-Mathura Road, which is opposite the colony, while traffic from Badarpur and Ashram Chowk has been diverted.

Delhi Police have said they misjudged the scale of protest; they had anticipated a crowd of between 100 and 200 but are now faced with more than a thousand people, including both students and members of the public.

The clash, which comes a day after hundreds of Jamia students took out a protest march from their campus to Parliament to express opposition to the CAA, is the latest in a series of increasingly violent protests over the contentious law.

Massive clashes have taken place in the North East over the past few days, where at least four people died and thousands took to the streets despite a curfew and the deployment several columns of the Assam Rifles.