Vehicular movement on the highways and train services were hit in Tripura on Thursday as the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra observed a 12-hour blockade against the Centre’s move to table the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament. An official said the agitation passed off peacefully.
INPT workers joined the protest at different locations in the State in large numbers. Paramilitary troops were deployed to restore order.
A senior police official said the agitation passed off peacefully.
INPT president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl and general secretary Jagadish Debbarma led the protest on the Assam-Agartala National Highway in Baramura Hills. The traffic on the highway came to a grinding halt as protesters squatted on the road.
The INPT is a traditional ally of the Congress. While the Congress opposes both the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAB, the INPT, like other indigenous groups, strongly supports the NRC in Tripura.
‘A futile exercise’
But Mr. Hrangkhawl said on Thursday that the NRC in Tripura would be a futile exercise if the CAB was passed and implemented. “They [the Central government] are trying to fool us ... they want to make foreigners permanent citizens and then go for the NRC to exclude them [foreigners] in the exercise,” he told newsmen.
He said Tripura was the only State in the northeast India where indigenous people were reduced to a minority owing to influx of people from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
