Large Gatherings Banned In 44 Of 52 Districts In Madhya Pradesh

The Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh has banned large gatherings under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or CrPc on 44 of the state's 52 districts, as more than 10 cities across the country hit the streets in protest against the Centre's new citizenship law. Pointing to similar moves in other states by the BJP-led governments to keep the protests under control, senior party leader Rahul Gandhi called it an "insult to India's soul".

Senior state minister PC Sharma, while justifying the imposition of Section 144 of CrPc, said: "Since the Kamal Nath government launched a war against adulteration and land mafia, those involved in such acts as well as those behind such people have been trying to disturb the situation by sneaking into such protests to make them violent".

"Those trying to sneak into these protests to disturb the situation may also be from the opposition BJP, but we'll trace all those trying to make peaceful protests violent," he added.

The BJP welcomed the imposition of Section 144, but chose to ignore the Congress.

BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal said, "The state government has imposed Section 144, so we welcome it. What the ministers of the Congress government are saying has no meaning because they do not care what they are doing and what they are saying."

The BJP has repeatedly accused the Congress of engineering the violent protests since the citizenship law - which promises citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who moved to India by 2014 -- was passed last week.

But despite the ban on large gatherings, protestors turned violent in communally sensitive Khandwa, where after the protest at Eidgah Maidan, while most protestors left the place, a group subsequently tried to hold a protest procession from Imlipura locality.

Barricades and police personnel stopped the group, which was bent on going ahead with the procession towards Bada Bum locality. The police had to use force to push the protestors back.

Irked over it, some protestors threw stones at the police and damaged at least two four wheelers parked on the road. The police subsequently used more force to disperse the protesting mob.

In his tweet earlier today, Rahul Gandhi said: "This government has no right to shut down colleges, telephones & the Internet, to halt metro trains and to impose #Section144 to suppress India's voice & prevent peaceful protests. To do so is an insult to India's soul."