NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th December, 2019) The Indian authorities announced on Monday that the universities in which students participated in mass riots, accompanied by clashes with the police, over a law expediting citizenship to religious minorities except for Muslims, be closed until January 5, media reported.
Last week, the Indian parliament passed a bill that fast-tracked citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who had fled from neighboring Muslim countries before December 2014. Muslims themselves were excluded from the bill.
According to the Indian NDTV broadcaster, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi are the two major institutions that will be closed for three weeks.
"In view of the current situation, we have declared winter vacations today onwards. The university will reopen on January 5. Examinations will be held after that," the AMU registrar, Abdul Hamid, was quoted as saying by the media outlet.
The Indian government has also decided to restrict internet access to the residents of several regions in the north and north-east of the country, according to the broadcaster.
The restrictions affected the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, as well as Delhi, where mass protests have continued for several days, resulting in clashes with the police. At least six people have died in the protests. About 60 people were injured during student unrest on Sunday night in New Delhi, including police officers.
Indian Muslims believe that the new law violates the constitution, as it oppresses a group of citizens in a formally secular country on religious grounds. The residents of the country's north-eastern states were also angered, fearing that now millions of people from Bangladesh could legally settle in their regions, which, according to the organizers of the protests, could threaten the interests of the local population.
