Protest against CAA: Death toll rises to 15 in Uttar Pradesh

At least 15 people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in Uttar Pradesh yesterday as the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act turned violent in the India's most populous state, officials said today.

Four deaths were reported from Meerut district while the boy lost his life in a stampede in Varanasi when a violent mob was being chased by police personnel, they said.

A police personnel aims his gun towards protesters during demonstrations against India's new citizenship law in Meerut on December 20, 2019. Five more protesters died in fresh clashes on December 20 between Indian police and demonstrators, taking the death toll to 14 from more than a week of unrest triggered by a citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim, as thousands rallied at the nation's biggest mosque. Photo: AFP

Six people were killed as protesters clashed with the police after Friday prayers at several places in the state. The agitators had hurled stones and torched vehicles, the officials said

Members of the Karnataka Reserve Police Force swing their sticks to beat two men on a scooter who rode too close to a barricade set up on a street in Mangalore on December 20, 2019, amid heightened security due to protests over India’s new citizenship law. Fresh clashes between Indian police and demonstrators erupted on December 20 after more than a week of deadly unrest triggered by a citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim. Photo: AFP

The total number of casualties during the violence protests across India in the last one week rose to 20 with five loss of life in Assam in the east and two in Mangaluru in the south of India earlier.

There had been reports of firing on police personnel deployed to maintain law and order in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

Hindustan Times reports, UP Governor Anandiben Patel appealed to people to maintain peace in the state and said the government will protect every citizen.

"Such protests yield no result but destroy the public property and harm people," Hindustan Times reports quoting a press communique of Anandiben Patel.

Earlier in the day, chief minister Yogi Adityanath met the governor and apprised her of the situation across the state.

In Delhi, Dalit leader and Bhim Army outfit chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad, who gave the police the slip while leading a march against CAA on Friday, was detained by police outside the Jama Masjid early today after he played hide and seek with security personnel for several hours.

Aazad, who had eluded the police a slip on Friday evening when security personnel tried to detain him during a march he led against the new citizenship law from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar, surfaced inside the mosque and was detained as soon he came out of the shrine.

Men try to extinguish a burning car after demonstrators set it on fire during a protest against a new citizenship law, in New Delhi, India, December 20, 2019. Photo: Reuters

 A large number of police personnel took position near the mosque, waiting for Aazad to come outside as a large number of people gathered there.

Senior police officers were persuading him to come outside the mosque since last evening. The drama continued for several hours and Aazad finally agreed around 3:15am local time today.

Aazad claimed his group was not involved in the violence near Delhi Gate yesterday and alleged that "policemen dressed as civilians are instigating violence in a bid to scuttle the protests."