delhi

Updated: Dec 19, 2019 18:32 IST

The Delhi Police prepared for the protests in the national capital against the new amended citizenship law with barricades at the city’s borders with Gurugram and ordering Delhi Metro to shut down 17 stations.

Massive jams were reported on roads leading to the capital from Gurugram with the police barricading the national highway and allowing only one vehicle to pass at a time at peak office hours. Traffic soon piled up for kilometres on the highway in Gurugram. The policemen at the border refused to relent.

Delhi Metro also shut down 17 metro stations on the instructions of the police in south Delhi around Jamia Millia Islamia University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and central Delhi.

Watch | Anti-CAA protests in Delhi: Metro service hit, traffic jams: All key points

In four tweets, Delhi Metro said entry and exit gates had been shut at Patel Chowk, Lok Kalyan Marg, Udyog Bhawan, ITO, Pragati Maidan, Khan Market, Lal Quila, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Vishwavidyalaya, Central Secretariat, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Vasant Vihar, Mandi House, Barakhamba and Munirka. “Trains will not be halting at these stations,” it said.

Already, the police had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 that bar an assembly of more than four people around Red Fort, the location for the main protest in the national capital called by Left parties and other groups.

Delhi Police spokesperson Anil Mittal said permission for the protest march had been refused to the Left parties for their protest march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar against the Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC this afternoon.

Mittal said permission sought by Swaraj Abhiyan had also been rejected; it wanted to march from Red Fort to Shaheed Park.

The political parties and groups have come together to protest against the new citizenship law and National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Thursday. In a statement, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday called on all district committees to mobilise their workers to protest the “unconstitutional moves” of the government.

Delhi was singed twice during protests over citizenship law. On December 15, a protest march being taken out by the students of Jamia Milia Islamia turned violent and six vehicles were burnt. The police then entered the campus of the university to look for the miscreants and detained 50 people.

It is this action that was widely condemned and student bodies across the country came out in solidarity with their Jamia counterparts.

Then again, there was violence in Seelampur in Northeast Delhi in which a few vehicles were burnt.

After these protests, the police in all other districts are conducting foot patrolling. Regular meetings with Aman (Peace) Committee in different areas are taking place. In some sensitive localities, the Delhi Police is also conducting flag march.