Anti-CAA protests: UP police intensify crackdown

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leads a protest rally against CAA and NRC, in Kolkata, on Thursday. Pic/ PTI

Lucknow/New Delhi: The police in Uttar Pradesh has intensified its crackdown on demonstrations against Citizenship (Amendment) Act and proposed nationwide implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) as protesters refuse to back down.

The police have arrested over 1,100 people, filed 327 FIRs and have kept 5,558 in preventive detention since the protests started on December 19, officers said on Thursday. The death toll in the state also continues to go up, with the officers putting the latest figure at 19. Police said five people were killed in Firozabad, four in Meerut, three in Kanpur, two each in Sambhal and Bijnor and one each in Muzaffarnagar, Rampur and Lucknow.

This tally does not take into account the eight-year-old killed in Varanasi on December 20 as he died "in a stampede when protesters were retreating," a police officer told PTI.
Three men, who were shifted to Delhi hospitals from UP, with gunshot injuries died during treatment. While one died on Tuesday, two others succumbed to injuries on Thursday. Meanwhile, police have beefed up security and shut down internet services again to ensure peace ahead of the Friday prayers.

More get notice
Meanwhile, the process to confiscate property of those involved in damaging public assets during the protests gained momentum with 372 persons being served notices in different districts to make them pay for the losses caused by them in arson and stone pelting. In Delhi, too, police detained at least 110 people after they staged a demonstration on Thursday outside UP Bhawan against the alleged police atrocities.

'False charges'
Rights activists have alleged that there was a "reign of terror" prevailing in UP and the police was framing false charges against people. Activist Harsh Mander alleged that the Centre was spreading "blatant lies" on NRC and NPR to forward their divisive agenda. Citing "police brutality" against AMU students, he alleged that it seems the entire state is at "an open war with a segment if its citizens". "A reign of terror is prevailing in UP," Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said.

1,113
No. of people arrested in UP so far

372
No. of people served notice for property damage

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