A fresh report and video purportedly from UP’s Kanpur suggests that state police shot at people protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act, despite the UP police’s claims that “nowhere did the police resort to firing”.
In the video which was telecast on NDTV, a police officer is seen pointing a pistol at a crowd and firing. The Quint is trying to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
The UP police chief had claimed that “not a single bullet was fired at protesters” by the police in the on-going protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act.
“...But I should make it clear that nowhere did the police resort to firing and not a single bullet was fired at the protesters. Protesters died in firing among themselves. This will become clear after the postmortem.”OP Singh, DG, UP Police in a statement to NDTV
At least 16 people have been killed in UP during protest-related violence, many from bullet injuries. Over 400 empty cartridges have been found across the state, police had said, while maintaining that state police did not fire at protesters.
A large number of people, both police and protesters, have been injured in the violence in UP in the past week.
Over 260 police personnel have allegedly been injured, with the UP police claiming that 57 of those were firearm-related injuries.
Over 400 empty cartridges have reportedly been recovered from the state. Uttar Pradesh Inspector General (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said that this was proof that “protesters were firing with country-made weapons” and that “those who died were either innocent bystanders or a part of the mob themselves.”
Police have arrested at least 705 people and registered 124 cases in the state in connection with the protests.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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