Several people were injured as police and paramilitary forces resorted to lathicharge and firing of tear gas shells to disperse protesters who hit the streets in this lower Assam town on Wednesday morning against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the release of All Assam Bengali Youth Student Federation’s district unit president Samrat Bhawal.

The protesters, primarily members of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) and All Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRSU), also staged a brief demonstration in front of Bongaigaon deputy commissioner’s office, demanding Bhawal’s re-arrest.

Bhawal was detained on Tuesday night after AASU protesters demanded his arrest, alleging the involvement of his organisation’s activists in an attack on them at Salbagan in Bongaigaon town on Tuesday during the 11-hour strike called by North East Students’ Organisation (Neso) against the bill.

Bhawal was released on Wednesday morning.

Denying his organisation’s involvement, Bhawal said, “Not a single member of my organisation was involved in the attack on picketers on Tuesday. I was picked up by police for an offence we did not commit,” he said.

On Tuesday, miscreants had pasted posters on the ma-in gate and outer walls of the house of Assam food and civil supplies minister Phani Bhu-shan Choudhury, who is the AGP’s MLA from Bongaigaon, at Barpara in the town. The posters carried defamatory slogans about Choudhury.

Bongaigaon superintendent of police Subodh Kumar Sonowal said, “We will take strong action against those who break law and order.”