▶️A group of women is being hailed across India for their defiant bravery after a video went viral on social media, showing them confronting baton-wielding police officers to save their friend during a protest in capital New Delhi on Sunday, December 15.
The video shows Indian police hitting a male student with sticks after chasing him and fellow students away from Sunday's protests.
👉 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government says the new citizenship law will save religious minorities such as Hindus and Christians from persecution in neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan by offering them a path to Indian nationality.
But the law does not apply to Muslims, which critics say weakens India's secular foundations.
Police fired tear gas in the New Seelampur part of the capital, Delihi, to push back protesters swarming to barricades and throwing stones.
Cars were damaged and roads strewn with rocks while small fires on the road sent smoke into the air.
There have been growing questions about the stance of the government, led by Modi's Hindu-nationalist party, towards India's Muslims, who make up 14 percent of the population.
The citizenship law follows the revocation of the special status of the Muslim-majority Kashmir region, and a court ruling clearing the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a mosque razed by Hindu zealots.
Anger with the government was stoked this week by allegations of police brutality at Jamia Millia Islamia University on Sunday, December 17, when officers entered the campus and fired tear gas to break up a protest. At least 100 people were wounded. (REUTERS)
