Life cripples in Tripura after call for shutdown against CAB

Life was almost crippled in TTAADC areas in Tripura on Monday as many tribal parties including BJP's ally IPFT observed shutdown against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB).

Road and rail traffic were badly affected and thousands of passengers stranded in the midway as the picketers did not allow plying the vehicles and trains running between Tripura and rest of the country. Police said that no major untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas, which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, and home to over 12 lakh people, mostly tribals.

Huge contingent of security forces including central para-military and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) were deployed to deal with the situation. Police arrested few hundred picketers for blockeding highways and single railway line connecting Tripura with the remaining parts of the country through Assam.

Two universities - Tripura University (a central varsity) and Maharaja Bir Bikram University (under Tripura Government) - postponed their examinations due to the strike. Senior police officials in Agartala quoting reports from the various districts, said that government offices, banks, educational institutions, shops and markets were closed in most places under the TTAADC areas.

According to the officials, most private and passenger vehicles were off the roads. Police evicted the picketers who tried to block the roads in a few places. The IPFT called for 12-hour shut down on Monday in TTAADC areas while the Joint Movement Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (JMACAB), a conglomeration of all other tribal based local and regional parties, NGOs and student and youth organisations of Tripura has also called indefinite strike across Tripura from Monday protesting against the CAB.

( With inputs from IANS )