Forty-four indigenous organisations, led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), have called a 12-hour Assam bandh on Tuesday to protest against the Centre’s bid to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the winter session of Parliament.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the leaders of the organisations here on Saturday.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, is scheduled to take oral evidence of the representatives of home, law and justice and external affairs ministries on Tuesday.

A source said the committee, led by Meerut BJP legislator Rajendra Agrawal, is at an advanced stage of preparing its report on the bill, which will be presented during the winter session of Parliament.

KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi said they were compelled to call the statewide bandh from 5am to 5pm on Tuesday considering the seriousness of the issue. He said this is the first time the KMSS had called an Assam bandh.

AJYCP general secretary Palash Changmai said they have set a November 1 deadline for the Assam government to prohibit a public meeting by Bengali organisations here on November 17 in support of the bill. “If the state government does not stop the November 17 meeting, we will stop the meeting ourselves,” he said.

Demanding the withdrawal of the bill, All Tai Ahom Students Union president Litul Buragohain said chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal will be responsible for any untoward incident if the government goes ahead with the bill.

The meeting also appealed to the AGP and other political parties to take a firm stand against the bill.

A delegation of AGP leaders left for Delhi on Saturday to meet the JPC members to oppose the bill. The AGP will also hold a mass rally here on Tuesday to register its protest against the bill.

The AGP has asked the organisations who called the Assam bandh to exempt their rally from the purview of the strike.

The AGP, an ally of the BJP in Assam, has threatened to pull out of the government if the bill is passed in Parliament.

The bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, was introduced in Lok Sabha in 2016 and subsequently referred to the JPC of both Houses for examination and presenting a report to Parliament.

The bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh fearing religious persecution before December 31, 2014.

There is stiff opposition to the bill in Assam as it also seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh.

Many political and civil society groups in Brahmaputra Valley have opposed the bill as it would pave the way for citizenship to illegal migrants from Bangladesh in violation of the 1985 Assam Accord, which had fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of illegal migrants.

According to organisations protesting against it, the bill will reduce the indigenous people of the state to minorities.