Prayagraj: A large number of people are holding a sit-in at a park against the citizenship law.
Taking a cue from the ongoing, month-long protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, a group of women in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj have started a sit-in at a park in the older part of the city.
The number of those protesting had swelled to over a thousand people by late night, and the women who started the protest on Sunday afternoon were also joined by men and student leaders from parties like the Samajwadi Party.
Those protesting say the initial plan is to carry on with the sit-in for at least 24 but added that this could be extended and that the protest will continue in one form or the other till the government relents and does a rethink on the contentious law.
"We are protesting here today because our constitution is being tampered with. Nobody is a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. We are all Hindustani," a woman at the protest said.
Prayagraj police chief Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj told the media that police forces had been sent to the area as a precautionary measure and that the police was trying to negotiate with the protesters to call off the protests. However, those leading the protests say they will not relent.
"These women will not move until the CAA is withdrawn. We are not moving anywhere. There are many other issues such as education and unemployment in this country," said Puja Yadav, a student leader of the Samajwadi Party.
Uttar Pradesh saw over 20 deaths after violent protests related to the citizen law broke out across many districts of the state last month . Most of these deaths are due to bullet injuries but the police have owned up to firing in only one instance.
An NDTV investigation tried to verify a police claim that 60 of their men had taken bullets from illegal firearms used by the protesters against cops last month. But one officer with a bullet injury was found in western Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.