Among the worst affected regions with multiple causalities as a result of the fallout of the ongoing nation-wide protests against the communal Citizen Amendment Act and the National Registration of Citizen in India, in the northern State of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
Police officials are accused of killing 17 civilians in Uttar Pradesh, where the government has unleashed terror in its attempt to disperse the ongoing protests against the Indian government.
Police and administration officials in Uttar Pradesh have declared war on Muslims after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vowed to “take revenge” on people protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Law, media reports have said.
In Kanpur city alone, police have registered cases against 21,500 people, according to Anant Deo, the city’s top police officer.
The police have denied firing at protesters but media has shown videos of police officers shooting with pistols and it can be seen on CCTV cameras across the state. So far, the police have admitted killing only one protester, a 20-year-old man called Suleiman who died after he was shot in the stomach in Bijnor city. The families of the victims are blaming the police forces for targeting their loved ones with an intent to kill. Doctors have also confirmed that most of the deceased were hit over their waist from a close range.
Criminal Procedure Code (which bars assembly of more than four people at a given place) was imposed on December 22, when a significant number of protesters gathered in Meerut, Kanpur, Rampur, Lucknow and Aligarh and tried to carry out a protest that ended in a violent confrontation with the police.
Channels reported on December 23 that the UP police barged into civilian homes, thrashing people indiscriminately and damaging their property and vehicles.
A zillion videos of UP police destroying private property, thrashing innocents & using firearms are floating around, but sanghis are still stuck at, 'protesters were indulging in violence & vandalism'. 🤦
— Sasidharan Pazhoor (@inquestioner) December 25, 2019
On December 20, Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi said was quoted as saying in Indian Express on December 20, “The property of each element involved in this violence will be confiscated, and used to recover compensation for public property which was damaged. All their faces have been identified. They are visible in the videography and CCTV footage. We will take revenge by confiscating their properties, I have ordered strict action”.
CCTV showing policemen in Muzzaffarnagar and Gorakhpur cities shows police brutality by forcefully entering Muslim homes, destroying their belongings or stealing them and assaulting men, women, and children. Whereas the Prime Minister has not made any comment on the brutality brought on the citizens by his Government, on Sunday, while addressing a public meeting in New Delhi, Modi said: “I want to ask those pelting stones on the police and injuring them, I want to ask those leading their protests as they hide … What will you achieve by wounding the policemen while they are doing their duty?.”
Apart from police brutality, a gang of thugs hired by the police was hired to bring down more torture on the protestors. Salman Sayeed, a Congress leader in Muzaffarnagar told Outlook magazine “People were marching in protest against the CAA on Friday. Then from one side ruling party’s members and supporters came firing towards the protesters. They were accompanied by the police that came down heavily on the protesters. One protester was killed but the police are bent on proving that he died in firing amongst the protesters”.
Various cases were reported by civilians of the violent behavior of the police, a local Magazine “Outlook” published some interviews as follows:
“…the police barged into homes of Khalapar area and broke everything. They took away Rs 3.25 lakh (Rs325,000) cash from one house and 200 gram of gold from another. The latter had kept it for their daughter’s marriage. Besides police and security forces, there were people in civilian clothes too,” the magazine reported.
It quoted social activist Nakul Singh Sawhney as saying: “The police have targeted the socially-active and well-to-do ones. Because they are the people who intervene for others,” says Sawhney.
On Christmas Day, the Nazi-inspired #RSS paramilitary flexed its muscle in the streets of Hyderabad. As #CAA_NRCProtests spread across India, affiliates of the RSS (especially its student wing, #ABVP) are accused of joining police in violence against protestors. #CAA_NRC_Protest pic.twitter.com/PdriKwoF7u
— Pieter Friedrich (@FriedrichPieter) December 25, 2019
Foreign nationals are having their visas revoked for taking part in the #CAA_NRC_Protest. https://t.co/OSPGe40IgB
— Kyalane Karthik (@kookykarthik) December 23, 2019
Foreign nationals are having their visas revoked for taking part in the #CAA_NRC_Protest. https://t.co/OSPGe40IgB
— Kyalane Karthik (@kookykarthik) December 23, 2019
These brutalities are not limited to main areas of the cities or Muslim residential colonies but also the Muslim Universities where numerous students were assaulted.
