Anti-CAA stir: Death toll in UP violence rises to 16

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, December 21

A police post was torched in Kanpur on Saturday amid fresh incidents of protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Uttar Pradesh's several districts including in Rampur and Aligarh as the toll in the violence in the last two days rose to 16.

One Mohammad Wakil from Khadra in Lucknow succumbed to his injuries. His post mortem reportedly reveals that he was killed due to gunshot injuries suffered from .32 bore weapon.

Two more persons who were protesting with him -- Jilani and Wasim Khan -- have also suffered bullets injuries and are under treatment at King George Medical University’s Trauma Centre.

According to the police, protesters in Kanpur on Saturday resorted to stone pelting following which they fired teargas shells, under Yateem Khana police station area.

One person had succumbed to firing by the police near Parade in Kanpur on Friday when a large number of people had come out on the streets. The unofficial toll in Kanpur is now two.

The police today detained a large number of Samajwadi party leaders who were later released.

In Rampur also one protester reportedly succumbed injuries allegedly he suffered in police firing, which was not officially confirmed.

In Sitapur today, the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse large number of protesters who had come out on the streets. 

Officially, DGP O P Singh has admitted nine deaths in UP so far. He also categorically denied firing by the police and said only teargas and lathi-charge are being used against the protesters. He said the deaths may have been the result of cross-firing.

He added that 218 persons have been arrested in Lucknow so far in connection with the December 19 violence and claimed that outsiders were behind the violence.

According to Uttar Pradesh IG (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar since December 10 CAA protests have resulted in 705 arrests, another 4,500 people have been released after preventive arrests.

As per Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s orders, the Lucknow police on Saturday pasted notices for seizure of property of protesters in many areas of old Luckow.

Reacting to this a large number of people came out on the streets in Daliganj and Akbari Gate area leading to fresh clashes with the police. The exercise has been temporarily stopped.

On Friday, four deaths were reported from Meerut district, three from Firozabad and two each in Kanpur and Bijnor, and one in Sambhal. An eight-year-old boy was killed in a stampede in Varanasi when a violent mob was being chased by policemen.

Yesterday, the Lucknow police had picked up the Uttar Pradesh correspondent of a national daily —a Muslim from Kashmir — from outside the Vidhan Sabha building. He was allegedly detained at the Hazratganj police station. He was threatened to be booked under IPC’s Section 120 B (punishment for criminal conspiracy).

The journalist was later taken to Sultanpur police station where police continued to interrogate him while he explained that he was part of the protests and later went to a deceased’s house to fulfil his professional commitments. It was only after the intervention of the CM’s office that he was released.

Internet services on mobile remains snapped in Lucknow till December 23. Internet has been suspended in 21 of the 75 districts of UP mainly in western UP, including Aligarh, Saharanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad, Varanasi, Kanpur and Bahraich. — With PTI inputs

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