Police on Friday arrested Zubair Anam, the vice-president of the Assam unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), for his alleged involvement in arson during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests here on December 11.

Anam was picked up near Rajiv Bhawan at ABC bus stop here after addressing a press meet there.

A police source said: “Anam was detained at 1pm — when he came out of Rajiv Bhawan. We are interrogating him (case 3768/19) under Sections 143,144,145, 147, 148, 149, 188, 336, 435, 427 of the IPC along with Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, among others, for his alleged involvement in vandalism at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra on December 11.”

Gauhati High Court had granted him pre-arrest bail in connection with Dispur police case 3768/19 on January 10.

Anam said: “I got the bail in the Kalakshetra vandalism case, where the government had alleged that I led the mob. And that I was identified from the CCTV footage of Kalakshetra. But mysteriously, they never gave out the CCTV footage to the media for the public to see. They didn’t even give it to the court.”

“At first I thought there was an attack on Kalakshetra by miscreants, but it was actually BJP members who vandalised it. The footage getting public would expose the faces of certain people who would connect themselves to the ruling party,” Anam said.

Earlier, the president of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress (APYC), Kamrul Islam Choudhury, was also arrested for his alleged involvement in arson during the anti-CAA protest in Guwahati.

CAA echo

The Duliajan unit of All Assam Tai Ahom Students’ Union (Atasu) observed Me-Dam-Me-Phi (paying tributes to forefathers of Ahom community) with CAA slogans on Saturday at Bhadoi public playground in Dibrugarh district.

In the morning, people paid tribute to their forefathers and lit earthen lamps and garlanded portraits of Dimbeswar Gogoi and Minaram Gogoi.

ATASU Duliajan unit general secretary Rupam Gogoi said, “Today we are paying tributes to our forefathers and staging a symbolic protest against CAA.”

Atasu, Sadou Asom Muttock Yuba Chatra Sanmilan, Anuchisita Jati Chatra Santha and others joined the protest.

“We have hoisted black flags against the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state. We will continue our protests till Assam is exempted from the law,” said Gogoi.

The activists of the organisations, along with local residents, paid tribute by lighting lamps on the site of Me-Dam-Me-Phi, to the five who died during the CAA protests in Assam.

Additional reporting by Pradip Kumar Neog in Duliajan