Death toll in India's citizenship protests rises to 3

The death toll in police firing during violence protests against the divisive amended citizenship law on Thursday rose to three with one more person succumbing in the southern city of Mangalore in BJP-ruled Karnataka.

Moving beyond the university campuses, the agitation witnessed yesterday was by far the most extensive as thousands of people poured on the streets across India reaching areas which were untouched by the unrest since the new law was passed by parliament and assented by the president.

The street demonstrations surged in southern cities and Lucknow where the most violent protests were seen yesterday when mobs set on fire police stations, public properties and vehicles and clashing with the police, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Police sources said protesters defying prohibitory orders attempted to lay siege to the Mangalore North police station and tried to attack police personnel, following which force was used to disperse them.

Two persons who received bullet injuries in police firing yesterday later succumbed at a hospital, police confirmed.

With this, the total toll in police firing and violent protests across India rose to eight, including five in Assam last week, since the anti-CAA agitation began.

In Karnataka, police lobbed tear gas shells, resorted to bat on charge and fired in the air to disperse protesters in Mangalore, as thousands of demonstrators hit the streets in many cities and towns across the state, defying prohibitory orders.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said he instructed police to exercise restraint while handling agitations and alleged opposition Congress was behind the protests.

Sensing deterioration of the law and order situation, authorities in 10 districts of Karnataka imposed prohibitory orders under Criminal Procedure Code section 144 for the next three days starting from Thursday. The order bans assembly of more than four people.

In other parts of India, protests broke out in CAA as well as police crackdown against students of Jamia Millia and Aligarh Muslim University across states and cities from Lucknow and Patna to Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

In India's financial capital Mumbai, thousands of people held a massive protest in the city's historic August Kranti Maidan from where India's Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had started his Quit India movement against British colonial rule in 1941.