Gunman fires at Delhi protest against citizenship law, wounds one
An unidentified gun-wielding man has wounded at least one individual after shooting at people protesting against the Indian government’s new citizenship law in New Delhi, the first such incident in the Indian capital during more than a month of protests.
The incident occurred near Jamia Millia Islamia University on Thursday, when a young man, dressed in a black jacket and brandishing a single-barrel weapon, first shouted slogans against demonstrators and then began shooting at them, witnesses told Reuters.
The unknown assailant was standing meters away from dozens of policemen deployed outside the university, where protesters, mostly students, had assembled for a march. “The police stood nearby,” one of the witnesses said.
The gunman was arrested following the shooting, police said.
The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was passed in December last year, triggering waves of massive protests. Some 30 people have so far lost their lives during anti-CAA rallies.
The provocative law allows granting citizenship to millions of migrants, with the exception of Muslims, who legally or illegally came into India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan before December 2014.
Opposition leaders, Muslim organizations, and student groups have petitioned India’s Supreme Court to suspend the implementation of the anti-Muslim law until the challenges to the legislation were settled. They also insist that the discriminatory law clearly violates India’s secular constitution.
The top court, however, on January 22, refused to put on hold the implementation of the new law, saying a constitutional bench of five judges should hear the petitions and rule on the matter. It also gave Modi’s government four weeks to reply to 144 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA.
In recent days, leaders from the BJP have called for action against demonstrators, branding the protests as unpatriotic.
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