Fresh anti-CAA agitation by 18 organisations in Assam from December 11

Organisations opposed to the CAA in Assam on Wednesday announced a fresh agitation against the Act from Friday, to mark one year of similar agitation last year in which five persons died in police firing.

The organisations would also launch the agitation seeking the release of anti-CAA activist and leader of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), Akhil Gogoi, who is in judicial custody since December 12 last year.

KMSS and 17 other organisations are gearing up to launch the agitation from Sivasagar in eastern Assam and gradually to rest of the state seeking a rollback of the CAA. The amended act seeks to allow non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till 2014, after a stay of six years.

"BJP government put Akhil, me and several others into jail for protesting against the CAA last year. But indigenous people of Assam are still not scared to raise their voice against the act. We must fight against the amendment which will make 1.90 crore Hindu migrants Indian citizens. Indigenous people will become a minority and lose the ethnic identity, culture and language," KMSS leader Dhaijjya Konwar said on Wednesday.

Konwar was also arrested along with Akhil on December 12 last year when the anti-CAA agitation turned violent in Guwahati and other parts of the state. Vehicles were set on fire, offices and BJP leaders were attacked and public properties damaged. The agitation even forced the Centre to postpone the Indo-Japan Summit scheduled to be held in Guwahati in January.

At least five persons died in police firing while curfew and restriction on the internet was clamped for days in order to bring the situation under control. Akhil was arrested and subsequently booked on sedition charge by the NIA. Akhil's bail plea is still pending in Gauhati High Court.

"If we don't fight and force the government to scrap the CAA, the day is not far when a Bangladesh-origin person will become a Chief Minister in Assam and seats in Assembly and other elected bodies will be occupied by such persons," Konwar said.

The ruling BJP is likely to deal the situation as sternly as it did last year as the fresh agitation ahead of Assembly elections slated in April-May may cause harm to it.