9 dead in clashes with police in Uttar Pradesh over CAA, as protest took a horrible turn

At least
nine people died in clashes with the police as violence over the passage of the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act spread to 14 locations across Uttar Pradesh on
Friday, taking the national death toll in the protests over the newly enacted
law to 17 so far.

Three people
died in Meerut, two in Bijnor, and one each in Varanasi, Ferozabad, Sambhal and
Kanpur on Friday.

Three
people, one in Lucknow and two in Karnataka’s Mangalore, were killed on
Thursday. Five deaths have been reported from Assam in the agitation so far.

An
eight-year-old boy died in Varanasi on Friday after a lathi-charge by police
led to a stampede. Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP), OP Singh,
said at least 50 policemen were also injured across the state in “heavy” stone
pelting by protesters returning from Friday prayers at mosques.

The Uttar
Pradesh Police, in anticipation of possible trouble on Friday, placed around
3,305 people under house arrest and took another 200 into preventive custody.

The
administration also imposed section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
which prohibits unlawful assembly of more than five people, in at least 16
districts of India’s largest state. Police also denied permission for any
protest against the CAA or the police action in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia
and Aligarh Muslim University.

 Starting Friday morning, mobile internet
services were also suspended in many parts of the state.

Uttar
Pradesh Police officials said the pattern of violence was the same across
locations: Larger than expected processions that started off peacefully, but
then turned violent with protesters hurling stones at policemen and destroying
public property, forcing a reaction. The state police also denied firing on
protesters.

In some
locations, protesters also burnt vehicles and damaged public property.

The
government has deployed central paramilitary forces and the Rapid Action Force
in all the sensitive areas in the state, he added, after a review meeting
called by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

A government
spokesperson said all educational institutions in the entire Uttar Pradesh
would remain closed on Saturday, December 21.