INDIAN AWAAZ WEB DESK
Eight people have been killed and several injured in different parts of India during widespread protests and violence against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Six people died in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. While two people died in Bijnor, one died in Kanpur, one in Firozabad and another one in Sambhal.
Six protesters were killed in violence that erupted across Uttar Pradesh over the Citizenship Amendment Act today, the state police have confirmed.
However, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police OP Singh claimed that none of the deaths had occurred due to police firing. “We did not fire even a single bullet,” he said.
According to information provided by the police, two protesters were killed in Bijnor while one each died in Sambhal, Firozabad, Meerut and Kanpur. “We did not shoot at anybody. If any firing has happened, it was from the protesters’ side,” another officer told NDTV.
One person was killed in a clash with police in Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh even as anti-citizenship law protests spread in several districts of the state. The violence spread to several cities that were previously not hit by the agitation, including Firozabad and Bhadohi, Gorakhpur as people hurled stones and torched vehicles in some areas when they were stopped from taking out rallies.
The new areas hit by the violence included Bhadohi, Bahraich, Farrukhabad, police said, besides Gorakhpur and Sambhal, which had witnessed violent protests on Thursday too. The death in Firozabad was the second in the state in the last 24 hours, after a protester was killed in state capital Lucknow on Thursday.
Police said they had to use canes and lob tear-gas shells at several places, after protesters turned violent and tried to take out rallies defying the prohibitory orders imposed in the state.
Internet services remained suspended in about a dozen districts, including Aligarh, Mau, Azamgarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Sambhal and Allahabad.
Lucknow and Aligarh, which have been the scenes of violent clashes over the amended citizenship law, however, remained by and large peaceful.
Security had been tightened in the state capital with the deployment of armed police, and senior officials said the Friday prayers passed off peacefully. But shoppers preferred to remain out of the busy markets, a day after a man died during demonstration in the Old city.
In areas deemed sensitive by authorities, police forces conducted flag marches.
Protesters set on fire at least six vehicles, including those of policemen, in Firozabad, forcing police to use tear-gas shells to disperse them and control the situation, officials said. Some policemen were reportedly injured in the clash.
Firozabad SSP Sachinder Patel and DM Chandra Vijay Singh were leading police patrols.
In Bhadohi, a protest-march was taken out but the participants clashed with police enroute. Officials said tear-gas shells were fired and a mild force was used to control the situation. Bhadohi SP Ram Badan Singh said the protesters indulged in brickbatting and damaged a number of motorbikes.
On Thursday, three people had died during the demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Two persons died in Karnataka’s Mangaluru and another one died in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The cause of death would be known after a post-mortem on the victims, officials said. Director-General of Police O P Singh has, however, maintained that none of the deaths were due to police action on the protesters.
Protesters clashed with police during anti-CAA demonstrations in Bhadohi, Bahraich, Amroha, Farurukhabad, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Hapur, Hathras, Bulandshahr, Hamirpur and Mahoba districts in Uttar Pradesh.