Daijiworld Media Network - Guwahati (SHP)

Guwahati, Dec 14: Additional chief secretary (home and political department) Sanjay Krishna on Saturday December 14 announced that internet services will continue to be suspended for 48 hours more because of violent protests in the state.

Officials in a statement on Saturday said that the internet services across Assam will remain suspended till December 16 to prevent alleged misuse of social media in disturbing the peace and to maintain law and order in the state.

As per the officials' social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube, are likely to be used for spreading rumours and transmitting information such as pictures, videos and texts which could fuel passions and exacerbate the law and order situation".

Internet services were suspended on Wednesday initially for 24 hours in ten districts of the state and then extended for another 48 hours across the state, scheduled to expire this afternoon.

As the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared by Parliament, violent protests broke out in the state with agitators engaging in pitched battles with the police, forcing the administration to impose curfew in several places.

The legislation has put the Northeast on the boil as people fear that it may exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration.

Earlier on Saturday, a portion of a railway station complex in West Bengal's Howrah district was set on fire by a mob who also thrashed security personnel guarding it.

As per police sources, the protesters blocked roads in and around the Sankrail railway station and set few shops on fire.

"Later in the afternoon, they entered the station complex and set the ticket counter on fire. When RPF and railway personnel tried to stop them, they were beaten up," a senior Railway Protection Force official said. This outrage and violent protests caused a major impact on train services.

West Bengal to be first state to implement Citizenship Act: BJP chief Dilip Ghosh

Kolkata, Dec 14: West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh earlier said the Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented in the state of West Bengal regardless of the protests from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress.

Further, Ghosh declared that the state of West Bengal would be the first to implement the Act.

This announcement came after Banerjee sternly stated that she will not allow the new law to be implemented in her state 'under any circumstances'.

"Earlier she had opposed the abrogation of Article 370, demonetisation, but that didn't stop the Union government from implementing it. In this case, too, the new Citizenship Act would be implemented in the state," Ghosh said.

He also questioned as to why was Mamata Banerjee against the CAB.

"Is it because she is afraid of losing her vote bank in the state? Let us make one thing very clear, the Citizenship Act would be implemented in the state and neither Banerjee nor her party will be able to stop it," he said.

"She is bothered about infiltrators but not about Hindu refugees who have been looking forward to this law for the last several decades," he added.

The chief minister has threatened to carry out a series of protests next week, seeking revocation of the 'draconian' Act.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya criticized Banerjee for instigating the public and spreading false information against the new Act.

"Why is Mamata Banerjee not taking action against the infiltrators who are behind the protests in Bengal? She is instigating masses to take the law into their hands. If she is so concerned about the infiltrators, why doesn't she say anything about Hindu refugees," Vijayvargiya questioned.

According to police sources, people in the minority-dominated districts of rural Howrah, Murshidabad, Birbhum, parts of Burdwan and North Bengal hit the streets this morning, raising slogans against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

In Kolkata, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Park Circus seven-point crossing, seeking the revocation of the law. They raised anti-government slogans and burnt tyres on the thoroughfare, leading to traffic jams in the southern and the central parts of the city.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday night gave his assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, turning it into an Act.

According to the amended Act, non-Muslim refugees, who escaped religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and moved to India before December 31, 2014, will be granted Indian citizenship.