Violent protests have broken out across India over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act
Fresh protests broke out across 13 Uttar Pradesh districts after Friday prayers this afternoon as thousands defied state-wide prohibitory orders and took to the streets to fight the new citizenship law. Faced with large crowds, stone-pelting protestors and vehicles being torched, cops resorted to lathi-charges and used tear gas to dispel crowds and control the situation. Violence has been reported from Muzaffarnagar, Bahraich, Bulandshahr, Gorakhpur, Firozabad, Aligarh, Farukhhabad, Bhadohi, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bijnor, Sultanpur, Varanasi and Sambhal districts, although the situation has been contained in some areas.
In state capital Lucknow, where one person died on Thursday from what authorities called "alleged firearm injury", more than 150 people have been arrested so far, according to Kalanidhi Naithani, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP).
Strict security measures had been enforced ahead of Friday prayers. According to news agency PTI, the cops said there had been no clashes till noon and prayers had passed peacefully, even though markets wore a deserted look and internet services were suspended.
OP Singh, the Director-General of Uttar Pradesh Police, has issued an appeal for calm and said the cops have solid leads regarding yesterday's violence.
"We have got some evidence that indicate the hand of outsiders. We are investigating them. Mobile phones and call details of those identified are being checked," he said, adding that preliminary investigations showed the trouble-makers had come from places like Barabanki and Bahraich.
"Some were speaking Bengali and it will be found out if they came from West Bengal," he added
A vehicle was torched amid anti-Citizenship Act protests in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr
In a nearly two-minute-long video of today's protests in Gorakhpur in the eastern part of the state, posted online by news agency ANI, a crowd of people can be seen standing at one end of a narrow but empty lane; police officers in riot gear are standing at the other.
In the video, protesters are throwing stones and shouting at the cops, at least some of whom are armed with what appear to be assault rifles. As the video plays out the cops, who do not initially react, start throwing stones at back at the protestors.
In Bulandshahr, which is in the western part of Uttar Pradesh, one vehicle - reportedly a police jeep - has been torched. Mobile internet services have been suspended in the district with effect from 3 pm "in order to maintain law and order and communal harmony", District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said.
Muslim clerics and a former BSP MLA appeal for calm in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr
Those detained by Lucknow Police for Thursday's violence include prominent activists like lawyer Mohammad Shoaib and former IPS officer and activist SR Darapuri. It is unclear, at this stage, if they have been arrested.
"The police first failed to control the violence and now to cover their faults they are going after activists who wanted to protest peacefully. This is not right... the police has to tell us where these people are," Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay Award-winning activist, said.
In Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, police have lathi-charged protestors.
Prohibitory orders have been in place in the state since November 9, the date when the Supreme Court announced its landmark verdict in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
The protests, and the arrests, come amid high drama at Delhi's Jama Masjid, where Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad led thousands in a rally against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.
Uttar Pradesh, with Assam and the national capital, has seen numerous protests - some violent - against the citizenship law, including a widely condemned crackdown on students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) late on Sunday night.
Protests have also spread like wildfire in South India; two persons died from police firing in Mangaluru in Karnataka yesterday.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, makes it easier to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Opposition parties, activists, celebrities and students protesting against the law say it discriminates against Muslims and is inimical to constitutional principles of secularism and equality.
With input from PTI, ANI