Paramilitary forces, drones on vigil as UP braces for more CAA protests

Lucknow: Security was mounted and patrolling intensified in sensitive areas across Uttar Pradesh to ensure peace during Friday prayers in view of widespread violence by those protesting against the amended Citizenship Act which has so far claimed 19 lives.

3,500 personnel of central paramilitary forces and 12,000 jawans of the UP provincial armed constabulary (PAC) are on the job to maintain peace, UP DGP OP Singh said.

As a precautionary measure, Internet services that were resumed after nearly a week, were suspended again in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. In Agra, the services will remain suspended till Friday evening, a senior police official said.

Internet services will be suspended in 21 of the 75 districts, the DGP said.

To avoid a repeat of last Friday's violence in Gorakhpur, police staged flag march in sensitive areas and held a meeting with peace committees in all circle and police station areas.

Paramilitary force personnel and state police force have been deployed, and drone cameras are being used to ensure security on Friday, Gorakhpur District Magistrate Vijyendra Pandiyan said.

Meanwhile, the process to confiscate the property of those involved in damaging public assets during the protests gained momentum as 372 people were served notices in different districts.

A Home Department spokesperson on Thursday put the death toll at 19 in the violence, which left 288 policemen injured, including 61 who received firearm injury. He said 327 FIRs have been registered and 5,558 preventive arrests made.

Official sources said more district administrations issued notices to people to make them pay for the losses caused by them in arson and stone-pelting.

In the entire state 1,113 persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in violence.

A report from Sambhal said the district administration has issued notices to 26 people for their alleged involvement in damaging properties during protests against the amended citizenship law, asking them to explain their position or pay for the losses.

Sambhal Superintendent of Police Yamuna Prasad said posters of 150 people have been released and 55 have been identified for their involvement in violent protests. A preliminary probe in anti-CAA violence in Kanpur suggested role of Bangladeshis and Kashmiris, the police said.

"Police investigation has revealed that violence during the protests against CAA on two consecutive days on Friday and Saturday in Kanpur happened in an organised manner," Kanpur SSP Anand Deo Tiwari said.

"Preliminary probe suggested the involvement of people including Bangladeshis and Kashmiris," he said, adding there was "ample evidence" to strongly indicate their involvement.

Some 1,200 unidentified persons, including students, teachers and non-teaching staff of the Aligarh Muslim University, have been booked for alleged violation of prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144 by taking out a candle-light march on Tuesday.

The march was taken out as a mark of protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and express solidarity with those who lost their lives during the stir against the contentious law.

Alleging the BJP government was "afraid" of Hindu-Muslim unity, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav sought to know when a probe into "police brutality" on protesters in the state will be ordered.

"The government is afraid of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is making allegations that people are criminals. It wants to confiscate property of the poor. It is commenting on people's dress...Threatening to take revenge from citizens. But the government should tell (people) when will it initiate probe into police brutality," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

Also on Thursday, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board said Indian Muslims do not have any threat from the National Register of Citizens.

"Hindustani Muslims do not have any threat from NRC. It should be implemented in the country. The real matter is of identification of intruders, who are real threat to the country," its chairman Waseem Rizvi said.

An Uttar Pradesh minister on a visit to Bijnor refused to meet the families of the two Muslim men who died in the recent protests against the new citizenship law, terming them "upadravi" (vandals).

"Why should I go to vandals' place? How can those who are involved in vandalism and put the entire country and state in arson be social," minister Kapil Dev Agarwal posed, defending his decision to not visit the homes of the two Muslim families.

"Why should I visit those who want to put Nahtaur/Bijnor in flames?" the minister in-charge of the district shot back when asked by reporters to justify his decision.

Agarwal, the vocational education and skill development minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, did meet Om Raj Saini, who was injured in the violence that hit the district's Nehtaur area, and his family.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday met the families of those dead in the violence in Bijnor.

When a media person confronted the UP minister by asking him specifically whether it did not amount to discrimination, Agarwal retorted saying, "Why should I go to the homes of vandals? Listen to me. Those who are doing vandalism and want to inflame passions, how are they part of society. Why should I go there? This is not about Hindu-Muslim. Why should I go to vandals?"

A report from Varanasi said 51 professors of the Banaras Hindu University and its affiliate colleges have started a signature campaign to lodge their protest against the arrest of some BHU students who were staging a peaceful protest against CAA and NRC in the city.

SC-monitored probe needed: Activists

Rights activists alleged on Thursday that there was a "reign of terror" prevailing in Uttar Pradesh to crack down on protests against the CAA and the NRC, and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe to ascertain the truth about police action and killings in the state.

At a press conference held here by "Hum Bharat ke Log: National Action Against Citizenship Amendment" comprising several rights groups, activist Harsh Mander said according to law, the government could use the details gathered in the National Population Register (NPR) to identify people as "doubtful citizens" and then use it for the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Uttar Pradesh police and the administration have denied any excess or wrongdoing.

Mandar alleged that the Centre was spreading "blatant lies" on the NRC and the NPR to forward its divisive agenda.

He claimed that while people were fighting for the soul of India and the Constitution, the ruling establishment was acting on a three-point "playlist".

They "communalise the issue", spread falsehood and then "crush dissent with the use of excessive force", he said.

The former IAS officer also contested Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks that there were no detention centres in the country, saying he had been to several such centres where Muslims were also languishing.

Citing "police brutality" against Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students, he alleged that it seemed that the entire state was at "an open war with a segment of its citizens".

Kavita Krishnan, who was part of a fact-finding commission that visited Meerut where people have died during anti-CAA protests, alleged that the police were framing false charges against people to crack down on such protests.

The group of rights organisations, in a statement, asked for an immediate end to "brutal suppression of dissent" and an independent probe into "police atrocities".

"The goal is not just to suppress all dissent against CAA/NRC in Uttar Pradesh, but to send a signal to anyone who may dare to raise a voice against anything," it added.

Bollywood appeals for judicial inquiry

After the press conference, Bollywood actors Swara Bhaskar and Zeeshan Ayyub read out an appeal, urging the courts of the country to take suo motu cognizance of what had ensued in Uttar Pradesh, and called for a judicial inquiry into the loss of lives and limbs and damage to public property.

"Irrespective of one's views on the merits of the law, there is something more fundamental that all of us agree on, in line with India's constitutional values - the right of citizens to protest peacefully; the duty of the state to respond proportionately, within the framework of law; and the ultimate role of courts in determining guilt and punishment," the appeal signed by Bhasker, Ayyub, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Konkona Sen, Aparna Sen, Alankrita Shrivastava, Kubbra Sait and Mallika Dua said.

The rights groups also hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his publicly announced "doctrine of revenge" against the protesters.

(With inputs from PTI.)