New Delhi: Rights activists on Thursday alleged that a “reign of terror” was prevalent in Uttar Pradesh and the police was framing false charges against people to crack down on protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
More than 1,100 people are under arrest and 5,558 have been kept in preventive detention following violence related to the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The death toll in police clashes across the state has risen to 19. Over 140 have been arrested in the national capital when protesting outside UP Bhawan on Thursday while protests continued for the 11th day at Shaheen Bagh (Jamia Milia).
The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the UP police chief after receiving various complaints alleging that “violation of human rights” on the part of the police had occurred during the ongoing anti-CAA protests in the state.
“A reign of terror is prevailing in Uttar Pradesh,” Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said. Citing “police brutality” against Aligarh Muslim University students, activist Harsh Mander alleged that it seemed that the entire state was at “an open war with a segment if its citizens”.
Mander added that 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 NRC.
He also alleged that the Central government was spreading “blatant lies” on NRC and NPR to forward its “divisive agenda”. Kavita Krishnan of the AIDWA, who was part of a fact-finding commission that visited Meerut where people have died in anti-CAA protests, alleged that police was framing false charges against people to crack down on anti-CAA protests.
At the same event, actors Swara Bhaskar and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub read out an appeal to the courts seeking an independent judicial probe into the violence against anti-CAA protesters in UP. The appeal, signed by filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Aparna Sen among others.
