At least 16 people, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed in Uttar Pradesh following protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the state, officials said on Saturday, 21 December.
A police post was torched in Kanpur on Saturday amid fresh incidents of protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act in several districts of Uttar Pradesh including in Rampur and Aligarh, as the death toll in the state rose to 16 in the last two days.
Security has been tightened in Kanpur after the incident at Yateem Khana Police Station.
"An FIR has been registered. 12 people have been arrested, and 15 detained. CCTV footage is being checked. We're appealing to people to maintain peace and not believe the rumours,” the SP East said.
The latest death was reported from Rampur on Saturday evening, where one person died and several people, including a policeman, were injured.
On Friday, four deaths were reported from Meerut district and two each in Kanpur and Bijnor.
An 8-year-old boy was killed in a stampede in Varanasi when a violent mob was being chased by policemen, officials said. Besides, violence claimed a life each in Sambhal and Firozabad, they added.
Amid a bandh call in Rampur on Saturday, around 400 to 500 protestors, including children in the age group of 12-18 years, gathered at some distance from the Eidgah in the city and stones were pelted at policemen, officials said.
5 Injured in Rampur Clashes
“Five protesters were injured, one of them seriously, during the clash. Around a dozen others suffered minor injuries due to tear-gas shelling, while over a dozen policemen also got hurt during stone pelting,” Rampur DM Aunjaneya Singh told PTI over phone.
He suspected involvement of some non-locals in the protest and said police did not open fire anywhere yet one protester had a gunshot injury.
AMU Witnesses Protests Again
After a lull of four days, AMU campus witnessed protests on 21 December again, with hundreds of AMU non-teaching staff joining hands with AMU Teachers’ Association, protesting against the CAA and “police atrocities” against the agitators in various parts of the state on Friday.
Police had to use force on Friday, 20 December evening to disperse a large crowd of protesters at Shahjamal under Delhi Gate Police Station in Aligarh.
In the western UP district of Kasganj, Internet services were suspended following tension, but police described the situation as being under control.
Adityanath’s Appeal to Protesters
As many as 705 persons were arrested for committing substantive offences and 4,500 were detained across the state, IG (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said in Lucknow on Saturday, 21 December.
The number of policemen injured were 263 of whom 57 received firearm injuries, he said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who on Friday night issued an appeal not to pay heed to rumours and help maintain peace and order, is keeping a close watch on the situation and is reported to have cancelled all his programmes outside the state capital.
He maintained even on Saturday that police did not open fire and all the deaths have been due to cross-firing between protesters.
“All the deaths that took place have been in cross-firing and this will become clear in post-mortem examination,” the DGP told reporters.
“We are clear and transparent in this. If anyone died due to our fire we will conduct a judicial inquiry and take action. But nothing happened from our side,” the DGP stressed.
Former CM Akhilesh Yadav Hits Out at Govt
Former UP Chief Minister & SP leader Akhilesh Yadav blamed the government for “inciting riots”.
He said, “As far as riots are concerned, those inciting riots are sitting in the govt itself. Only those sitting in the govt will benefit from the riots. The BJP is deliberately spreading hatred and scaring people. They have failed on the front of real issues.”
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