New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh remained on edge on Friday as the state police kept vigil through drones, snapped internet connectivity and held flag marches to prevent anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and anti-National Register of Citizens (NRC) protests.
“The entire state was peaceful,” Uttar Pradesh director general of police O.P. Singh said later, adding that there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state.
UP was placed under a thick security cover with deployment of Central paramilitary forces in sensitive areas in view of Friday prayers in mosques. Around 3,500 personnel of Central paramilitary forces and 12,000 jawans of the UP Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were on the job to maintain peace, the state police chief said. Police staged flag marches in sensitive areas and held meetings with peace committees to avoid a repeat of the previous Friday’s protests.
As a precautionary measure, Internet services which were resumed after nearly a week, were suspended again in over 20 of the 75 UP districts including Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Agra.
Last Friday, the state had witnessed heavy violence after the namaz with visuals of stone pelting showing both police and protesters engaging each other.
Protesters march with hands tied
Police had also lathicharged and fired at the protesters to control crowd. The UP police is facing flak over the manner in which it handled last week’s violent protests, with human rights activists accusing them of using excessive force and targeting innocent people. Most of the deaths during the violence took place due to firearm injuries.
The Teachers’ Association of Aligarh Muslim University has called for a judicial probe into the clashes between police and students during a protest last week. The association also demanded that “false cases” against AMU students should be immediately withdrawn and guilty police personnel be punished as per the law. More than 1,100 people are under arrest and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following violence related to the anti-citizenship amendment act protests.
Reports from Moradabad, Amroha and Hathras districts said the juma namaz was offered at various mosques and the congregations dispersed peacefully. In Lucknow, a heavy deployment of paramilitary force personnel was made outside the historic Tiley Wali Masjid in the Old City area. Patrolling was intensified in sensitive areas across U.P. ahead of the Friday prayers.
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 till Thursday. Maximum 200 notices were issued in Moradabad, followed by 110 in Lucknow, 34 in Gorakhpur and 29 in Firozabad, an official spokesman said here.
In Delhi, hundreds of people with their hands tied marched towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence to demand the release of Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad and to protest against the CAA. They were, however, stopped by police. Delhi police too used drones to videograph the protesters and keep a vigil.
Former chairman of the National Commission For Minorities Wajahat Habibullah said citizenship law is against the basic principles of Constitution.
“The way people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for no fault of theirs, the government needs to remember that when the MPs we elect don’t raise voice for us that is when people take to streets to raise their voices themselves,” he added.
