The Hyderabad Police detained six men after they shouted slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens early on Wednesday morning near Charminar area, The NewsMinute reported.

The police took them into preventive custody because of the law and order situation but released them a few hours later.

Officials identified the six men as Abbas Ali, Mohammed Niyamath, Syedd Gofran, Maqbul Ahmed, Maqbul Gafar and Salar, adding that they were not associated with any party.

“Around 12 am on Wednesday, they started raising slogans where people were walking on the road,” Charminar Inspector Gurunaidu said. “Since they did not have permission to hold such a protest or demonstration, we took them into preventive custody.”

The video of the police detaining the men was shared on social media, where an official is heard using derogatory language.

There have been massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens in the country over the last two weeks, resulting in the deaths of at least 26 people. The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims.

The National Register of Citizens is a proposed nationwide exercise to identify undocumented migrants. It was carried out in Assam earlier this year. Its final list excluded 19 lakh people, or 6% of the state’s population.