The authorities stepped up security in Shaheen Bagh after the Centre notified the CAA rules.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Hindu refugees from Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) rules even as an uneasy quiet pervaded Shaheen Bagh, which was the epicentre of protests against the legislation four years ago.
Shaheen Bagh is one of the areas where the police had stepped up security following the notification of the rules on Monday evening. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2019. It facilitates citizenship to undocumented people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian, and Jain communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
Dharamvir Solanki, a Hindu refugee from Pakistan, said the notification of the rules ushered in hope for people like him. “My children asked me if this meant that we would get citizenship. I nodded happily,” he said.
Mr. Solanki is one of the many Hindu refugees who settled along the Yamuna banks in the city. He said getting LPG cylinders, electricity, and water connections was not easy as a refugee. “We are now hopeful that our miseries will end and that we will be recognised as citizens of India,” he said.
But in Shaheen Bagh, a resident expressed disappointment over the notification. Nargis Khan, 21, said her mother and grandmother had actively participated in anti-CAA protests in 2019. “There is a sense of defeat in their eyes today,” she said.
Meanwhile, the police detained around 90 Delhi University students for protesting against the Centre’s move. Students also gathered on the Jamia Milia Islamia campus amid heavy police presence. They demanded the scrapping of the Act.
DCP (North) Manoj Kumar Meena said they detained some students as a preventive measure and released them around 5.30 p.m. “Allegations that we thrashed them are baseless,” he said in response to the accusation that the police had beaten some students.