Violent protests break out in western UP; vehicles torched

Mangaloretoday News

Meerut, UP, Dec 20: Fresh protests broke out across 13 Uttar Pradesh districts after Friday prayers this afternoon as thousands defied state-wide prohibitory orders and took to the streets to fight the new citizenship law. Faced with large crowds, stone-pelting protestors and vehicles being torched, cops resorted to lathi-charges and used tear gas to dispel crowds and control the situation. Violence has been reported from Muzaffarnagar, Bahraich, Bulandshahr, Gorakhpur, Firozabad, Aligarh, Farukhhabad, Bhadohi, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bijnor, Sultanpur, Varanasi and Sambhal districts, although the situation has been contained in some areas .

 

In a nearly two-minute-long video of today’s protests in Gorakhpur in the eastern part of the state, posted online by news agency ANI, a crowd of people can be seen standing at one end of a narrow but empty lane; police officers in riot gear are standing at the other.

In the video, protesters are throwing stones and shouting at the cops, at least some of whom are armed with what appear to be assault rifles. As the video plays out the cops, who do not initially react, start throwing stones at back at the protestors.

In Bulandshahr, which is in the western part of Uttar Pradesh, one vehicle - reportedly a police jeep - has been torched. Mobile internet services have been suspended in the district with effect from 3 pm "in order to maintain law and order and communal harmony", District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said.

In state capital Lucknow, where one person died on Thursday from what authorities called "alleged firearm injury", strict security measures had been enforced ahead of Friday prayers. According to news agency PTI, the cops said there had been no clashes till noon and prayers had passed peacefully, even though markets wore a deserted look and internet services were suspended.

OP Singh, the Director-General of Uttar Pradesh Police, has issued an appeal for calm and said the cops have solid leads regarding yesterday’s violence.

"We have got some evidence that indicate the hand of outsiders. We are investigating them. Mobile phones and call details of those identified are being checked," he said, adding that preliminary investigations showed the trouble-makers had come from places like Barabanki and Bahraich.

"Some were speaking Bengali and it will be found out if they came from West Bengal," he added.