Patriotic songs, the tricolour and placards with “save the Constitution” slogans marked the rally that was taken out by around 5,000 Muslims against the new citizenship matrix here on Friday.

Youths outnumbered the elders at the rally, which began from Kanni Ram Mor and ended at the Palamau district collectorate where a memorandum against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) was submitted by the protesters.

The popular patriotic songs that blared from the loudspeakers included Dil diya hai jaan bhi denge aye watan tere liye and tiranga shaan hai hamara, tiranga abhiman hai hamara.

One of the banners held by those who were at the forefront of the march read “Desh bachane nikle hai, aao hamare saath chalo” (Let’s walk together to save the country).

On the placards were written “Jinnah Savarkar Murdabad, Gandhi Ambedkar Zindabad” and “NRC, CAA and NPR are no panacea, but poison for the country”.

The slogans kept changing from the Azadi chant made famous by CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar to Hindustan ke char Sipahi, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai.

Sub-divisional police officers (SDPO) Sandip K. Gupta and Surjit Kumar monitored the rally that was followed by cops with anti-riot gear.

Garhwa superintendent of police (SP) Ashwani K. Sinha, who has been given the additional charge of Palamau SP Ajay Linda in the latter’s absence, said: “We have deployed heavy forces to strictly monitor this rally. I will be taking note of this rally from cops posted in Daltonganj.”

SDPO Gupta said the entire rally was video-graphed.

Sources said the heavy turnout was a reaction to the January 15 pro-CAA rally taken out by Ekta Manch in Daltonganj.