Protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) refuse to abate as a march from Delhi’s Mandi House to Jantar Mantar led by Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav is being held today.

Section 144, which bans large gatherings, has been imposed at Mandi House area in view of the planned protest against the citizenship law. Police teams have been deployed.

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Despite the prohibitory orders, hundreds of students and locals have gathered at Mandi House extending their support to the protest march.

Peaceful protests were held across the country on Monday, with political parties, students and the civil society coming together against the contentious citizenship law.

In Delhi, the Congress held protests at Rajghat, which was attended by senior leaders of the party, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Kamal Nath.

The DMK held a rally attended by thousands after getting clearance from the High Court in Chennai.

Multiple rallies were also held in Bengaluru, Kochi, Mumbai and kolkata.

On December 19, nationwide protests were held against CAA including the national capital.

Section 144 was imposed to curb large gatherings especially in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Karanataka, including the state capital, Bengaluru.

In a first, telecommunication companies were asked to suspend internet, voice and call services in several areas of Delhi. At least 21 metro stations were closed.

Section 144 was imposed near Red Fort and Mandi House as two protests were planned in these areas.

A slew of Opposition leaders ~ including Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit ~ activists, including Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Umar Khalid, were among many who were detained near the Red Fort and Mandi House ~ the sites of two planned protests against the “unconstitutional” CAA and against police crackdown on students.

Thousands of protesters were detained and dragged into buses by police for defying Section 144 of the CrPC.

Protests against CAA that were earlier confined to the northeast, have swept the country over the past week after several protesters, including students, clashed with the police in Delhi’s Jamia Milia Islamia on December 15.

The amended law seeks to provide citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and have arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.

At least 20 people have died in protests, that turned violent in several areas, since the Citizenship Amendment Bill was signed by President Ram Nath Kovind on December 11 and became a law.