CAA protests: Bijnor, Kanpur, Kashi, fire spreads

AGRA/MEERUT: Violent protests against the citizenship law spread to several districts in western UP on Friday with police and protesters locked in pitched battles, snuffing out at least eight lives by late evening. Meerut was the worst affected with three casualties. Two deaths were reported from Bijnor and one each from Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad and Sambhal.
Several persons, including security personnel were injured in violence which erupted on Friday afternoon as hundreds of protesters in city’s minority-dominated areas hurled stones at police and RAF teams and ransacked public property.The vandals, mostly youths, had a free run for several hours before security personnel pushed them back after a pitched battle.

Stone pelting in Meerut continued for several hours and intensified by evening despite paramilitary force rushing to affected areas to push back rioters. In the evening, the retreating mob attacked Islamabad police outpost and torched several vehicles. SSP Meerut Ajay Sahni said 12 people have been arrested for arson and additional police force has been deployed at all sensitive spots.
At least two persons were killed in Bijnor’s Nahtor area and 12 policemen injured during the violence. Suleman, 20 and Anas, 21, died due to bullet injuries, sources said. Two journalists were also injured. In Amroha, more than 12 people were injured and 15 arrested.
Muzaffarnagar also witnessed violence as protesters threw stones and damaged public properties. One of them, Noor Mohammad (25), was hit by bullet and was rushed to Meerut’s Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial (LLRM) Medical College, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Several police vehicles were vandalized or torched in Bijnor, Bulandshahr, Amroha, and Hapur. At least 90 people were taken into custody in Bijnor. ADG of Meerut zone Prashant Kumar also suffered minor injury after a stone landed on his foot in Muzaffarnagar.
One person was killed after fresh violence erupted in Sambhal on Friday. SP Yamuna Prasad told TOI that the deceased was identified as Bilal, 21. He was a local resident and his body has been sent for post-mortem examination. “Police didn’t open fire on rioters. We are waiting for post-mortem reports that will ascertain the cause behind Bilal’s death,” said Prasad.