New Delhi, Nov 11 (NDTV): Violent protests have broken out in Guwahati and parts of Assam and the North East over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill tabled before the Rajya Sabha by Home Minister Amit Shah this afternoon.

The Indian Army has sent two columns, each consisting of 70 soldiers and one or two officers, to Kanchanpur and Manu in Tripura and two others are on standby in Assam's Dibrugarh and Bongaigaon. A Police QRT (Quick Response Team) has been dispatched to Assam's Dibrugarh district and a total of 5,000 paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the North East. The Assam government has also suspended mobile and internet services in 10 districts and imposed an indefinite curfew in Guwahati.
The region has seen widespread protests over the bill, which seeks to make non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh Indian citizens. Protesters, who include students, civil society members and political leaders allied with the ruling BJP, have expressed concerns that refugees allowed by the bill could endanger identity and livelihood of indigenous people.

In Assam, protests erupted across different parts of the BJP-ruled state with the security forces resorting to lathi-charges in Dispur, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Jorhat. According to news agency PTI senior civil and police officers are incommunicado but hundreds of protesters have been detained in state capital Guwahti and other places like Dibrugarh and Jorhat, news agency PTI reported.