Traffic comes to a halt as AASU calls 1-hour NH blockade

Guwahati, January 29, 2019

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has staged a statewide National Highway (NH) blockade on Tuesday from 12:00 PM noon to 1:00 PM. The protest has been supported by Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), Goriya Moriya Students’ Union and other student bodies in the state of Assam.

The blockade has been called due to the thrashing of AASU activists by BJP-affiliated goons in a police station at Ghograpara in Nalbari on Sunday for waving the black flag to Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to mark the protest against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Nearly all the district AASU chapters have staged protests with maximum participation. However, many have been detained by the police.

Protestors have blocked the roads in Basistha, Nogaon, Najira, Sivsagar, Nalbari, Numaligarh, among others.

A 30-40 member team of BJP workers entered the police station at Ghograpara and attacked three protestors who had been apprehended by the police.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya has slammed the BJP government and asked for a reply for each and every blow that landed on the AASU activists at Nalbari. Meanwhile, AASU General Secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi has slammed the tactics of the BJP as ‘Hitlerian’.

It may be mentioned that on January 21, members of AJYCP and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) were also thrashed by the police for waving a black flag at Himanta Biswa Sarma at Kalomoni in Baihata Chariali of Assam.