Calls, internet services, metros suspended in parts of Delhi

Police in New Delhi also detained dozens of people protesting against the law, including historian Ramachandra Guha

NEW DELHI: Mobile carrier Bharti Airtel’s customer care on Thursday told customers it had suspended voice calls, SMS and internet services in parts of the Indian capital following days of protests across the city against a new citizenship law.

“We’re complying with instructions received from government authorities on suspending Voice, SMS and data in certain areas in Delhi,” Bharti’s customer care said on social media platform Twitter.

“Once the suspension orders are lifted, our services will be fully up and running.”

Vodafone Idea also said the company had suspended internet services in some parts of the capital Delhi to comply with a government order.

"As per the directive received from the Government, data services are stopped at a few locations," Vodafone Idea's customer care tweeted in response to a user's question about its network in Delhi.

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SMS services have also been suspended at a few locations, the company's customer care separately told another Twitter user.

Commuters also faced huge traffic jams on the Delhi-Gurugram highway as 17 metros were closed. A Delhi Police official said Section 144 (prohibiting the assembly of more than four people) has been imposed in the North East disrict and around the historic Red Fort in Old Delhi, from where protesters had planned to march to ITO, reported Indian media.

Police in New Delhi also detained dozens of people protesting against a new citizenship law that is seen as anti-Muslim as they began to gather in front the Indian capital’s historic Red Fort, in defiance of a ban on public gatherings.

In Mumbai, police detained one of the country's most respected historians and intellectuals, Ramachandra Guha, on Thursday during a demonstration in the southern city of Bengaluru.

Indian news channels showed footage of Guha being dragged by three policemen near barricades erected to hold back protesters challenging the law which critics say is prejudicial to Muslims and undermines the country's secular constitution.

"I am protesting non-violently, but look they are stopping us," said Guha before being surrounded by police at the demonstration, one of four held in Bengaluru.

Citing law and order concerns following violent protests against the law during the past week, officials said authorities imposed bans on Thursday in parts of the capital and two big states.

Police in Uttar Pradesh, a northern state that is India’s most populous, also declared a ban on protests. In the southern state of Karnataka, whose capital Bengaluru is home to many multinational technology companies, a ban was placed until Dec 21.

In Delhi, students, politicians and rights activists had called for a peaceful demonstration at the Red Fort against the legislation pushed through by the country’s Hindu nationalist government a week ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dug his heels in over the law that lays out a path for people from minority religions in neighboring Muslim countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - who had settled in India before 2015 to obtain Indian citizenship.

“We are here to peacefully demonstrate against this law,” Mohammed Maz, a bearded middle-aged protester told Reuters as he was detained by police in front of the Red Fort.

Protesters say the exclusion of Muslims betrays a deep-seated bias against the community, which makes up 14% of India’s population, and that the law is the latest move in a series by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to marginalise them.

“If not today when will you stand up for your country? ... Join the Citizen’s March against the divisive Citizenship Act. Join me at Lal Quila ( Red Fort) 11:00 am,” Yogendra Yadav, an academic turned politician, tweeted.

Delhi police said the permission to hold the gathering had been denied because of the law and order situation. Train stations including at the Red Fort and university areas were shut to stop people from traveling to the site.

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On Sunday, police stormed New Delhi’s Jamia Millia University, firing tear gas and wielding batons to break up a protest by hundreds of students, injuring scores.

In violent protests in another part of the capital this week, protesters, many of them masked, fought pitched battles with police.

Anger against the Modi government has burst into the open after a series of moves that were seen as advancing a Hindu-first agenda in a country that has long celebrated its diversity and secular constitution.

In August, the government took away Muslim majority Kashmir’s autonomy and later the Supreme Court cleared the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on a site disputed by Muslims, and had been a flashpoint for years.