Lucknow | Jagran News Desk: As many as 11 people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed while several others were injured in protests against the contentious Citizenship Act in Uttar Pradesh after the Friday prayers, confirmed the state officials.
According to UP officials, four people were killed in Meerut while the boy lost his life in a stampede in Varanasi when a violent mob was being chased by police personnel. After the Friday prayers, violent protests erupted in several districts of Uttar Pradesh leading to a clash between state officials and protesters.
However, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police OP Singh has claimed that none of the protesters were killed in police firing. Singh further said that as many as 50 policemen were seriously hurt in the clashes with the protesters on Friday.
According to officials, the protesters hurled stones at the police and torched vehicles while there have been reports of firing on police personnel deployed to maintain law and order forcing the police to use tear-gas shells to disperse them and control the situation.
The state government has also suspended internet services in about a dozen districts, including Aligarh, Mau, Azamgarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Sambhal and Allahabad.
However, protests in Lucknow and Aligarh were peaceful. A red alert was also sounded in Aligarh by the administration in view of continued protests, said SSP Akash Kulhari while adding that officials were talking to community leaders and distributing leaflets to allay fears over the amended law and the proposed exercise to compile the names of genuine citizens through NRC. Demonstrations were also held in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home town in Gorakhpur.
The protests were held against the amended Citizenship Act across UP on Friday. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who entered India before 2015 after facing religious persecution in three neighbouring countries.