In fierce protests in the Indian capital of New Delhi for and against the controversial new citizenship law, at least nineteen people have been killed in recent days, a senior hospital official reports in conversation with news agency Reuters.
Fifteen people would also be in the hospital in critical condition. Thousands of proponents and opponents of the law face each other in the streets of New Delhi; the police try to tear the crowd apart with tear gas and smoke bombs.
The protests coincide with US President Donald Trump’s visit to India.
It is troubled in New Delhi because of the law described by critics as racist. The new law allows religious minorities from neighboring countries Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to obtain Indian nationality. The law applies to undocumented Christians, Hindus and Sikhs, but not to Muslims.
With that, the law of the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would undermine the Indian secular constitution, opponents say.
The law was approved by the Indian Parliament in December last year. Thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets throughout India and more than fifteen hundred people were killed.
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