New Delhi: Clashes broke out between two groups of people near Jaffrabad in northeast Delhi on Sunday evening where a large number of people had gathered to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Delhi Police fired tear gas shells as members of the two groups pelted stones at each other in Maujpur and also lathi-charged protesters.
Clashes also broke out between anti-CAA protesters and the police in the old city area of Aligarh in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh following incidents of arson and stone pelting.
There was tension in the area after hundreds of anti-CAA protesters, mostly women, blocked a road near the Jaffrabad metro station connecting Seelampur with Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar.
There was heavy security deployment in the area.
The anti-CAA protest continued on Sunday, prompting Delhi Metro authorities to close the entry and exit gates of the station. Later in the day, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) announced the entry and exit gates to the Maujpur-Babarpur station were also closed.
Earlier, the entry and exit gates of Jaffrabad Metro station were closed on Sunday morning.
Carrying tricolours and raising slogans, the protesters, mostly women, had descended at the spot on Saturday night. The road connects Seelampur with Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar.
A woman, who identified herself as Bushra, had said that till the time the CAA is not revoked, the protesters would not leave the site.
Social activist Faheem Baig had said there is resentment among people over the way the government was handling the issue.
"This protest is against CAA, NRC and also seeking reservation for Dalits. The movement is primarily led by the women, while the men are only supporting them,” a protester named Shadab said. "We have blocked the road in order to protest and we will not move from the site till the Centre revokes the draconian law," he said.
The fresh sit-in protest comes at a time when efforts are being made to negotiate with the protesters at Shaheen Bagh whose agitation has resulted in traffic snarls along the Delhi-Noida route. A small stretch of the road closed for over two months was "opened" by a group of demonstrators on Saturday, though police barricades continued on one side.
Protesters claimed that they "opened" the stretch, which would allow passage between Noida and south Delhi, at around 5 pm near the protest site, but the Delhi Police and the Noida police were continuing the barricade from one side restricting access to commuters. The Delhi Police had maintained that it has barricaded adjacent roads due to security reasons.
(With inputs from PTI)
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