3 dead as CAA protests sweep nation

New Delhi, December 19

Three persons were killed allegedly in police firing as simultaneous protests raged in multiple cities today with thousands-strong crowds of students, activists and others defying prohibitory orders to voice their dissent against the newly amended citizenship law, resulting in violence in parts of UP, Bihar and Karnataka and detention of hundreds across the country.

Authorities resorted to barricading and clampdown on mobile services, including an unprecedented one in the national capital, while protesters also faced tear gas shelling and police batons at some places, including in Uttar Pradesh where incidents of arson and stone pelting gave the protests a violent colour.

Two persons were killed in police firing in Mangaluru (Karnataka) as protests turned violent, police said. Police sources said protesters attempted to lay siege to a police station and tried to attack police personnel, following which force was used to disperse them.

In Lucknow, a man died of a firearm injury which he suffered while passing by a violent protest. UP Police chief OP Singh, however, claimed the death was not linked to the agitation or any police action. “Two other patients are undergoing treatment and one of them has firearm injury,” he said.

Protests remained largely peaceful at most places with the agitators depending on slogans and placards to express their opposition to the new law and what they called “barbaric police action” against students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.

Opposition parties, meanwhile, joined forces to attack the Narendra Modi government on the new law which, they alleged, was against the “idea of India”, even as the ruling BJP asserted there would be no rethink on implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would also be brought in.

In Bengaluru, scores of people, including writer and historian Ramachandra Guha, were detained. Guha said it was “absolutely undemocratic” that the police were not allowing even a peaceful protest, which was the democratic right of the citizens.

Biocon managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw expressed shock over detention of peaceful protesters. “This is shocking n reflects the total lack of understanding of fundamental freedom to express dissent – a peaceful protest shd not be mishandled in this manner (sic),” she tweeted.

Delhi continued to be in the grip of high-voltage protests as the police detained hundreds of students, activists and Opposition leaders for defying prohibitory orders.

Several parts faced restrictions on mobile internet services–probably a first in the Capital. The traffic movement also remained affected with 18 metro stations being closed for entry and exit. Flight services were hit too. A Delhi airport official said 19 IndiGo flights were cancelled and 16 delayed as crew members were stuck in traffic.

Opposition leaders, including D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dikshit and activists Yogendra Yadav and Umar Khalid, were among those detained near Red Fort and Mandi House–the sites of the two planned demonstrations.

Later, hundreds of flag-waving students and activists converged near Jantar Mantar after police forcefully evicted protesters from around Red Fort and Mandi House where Section 144 was imposed. Here, scores of protesters offered roses to security personnel with a message of “love in return of hatred” saying “police could lathicharge them as much as they wanted”. Some lawyers participating in the demonstration also offered legal assistance to protesters in case they were detained by the Delhi Police.

“How many people will your jails hold? As Gandhiji said, once people lose the fear of being detained, they are free. Then the oppressors have lost. That is what is happening with the CAA protests,” tweeted activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan before being detained.

Swaraj Abhiyan president Yogendra Yadav, who was also detained, tweeted: “One day we might be grateful to @narendramodi and @AmitShah for they brought the whole of India together through protests like today’s. One day we shall feel proud that we registered our voice against this unconstitutional law.”

In UP where at least a dozen vehicles were torched, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said those who damaged public property would have to pay for it and the culprits had been identified through video and CCTV footage. “We will take revenge by auctioning their property to compensate for the losses,” he said.

In Maharashtra, the Congress, NCP and various other parties came together under a front called ‘Hum Bharat Ke Log’ for a protest rally at Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan, the place where in 1942 Mahatma Gandhi told the then British rulers to quit India. Noted freedom fighter GG Parikh, 94, who participated in the Quit India movement in 1942, was present at the Maidan.

Protests in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, which were at the centre of the stir initially, were largely peaceful. Protests were also held in Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, among other states. PTI