Several towns and cities in Uttar Pradesh witnessed widespread violent protests over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act. The anti-CAA rioters, who ran amok, under the pretext of peaceful protests, blatantly indulged in arson, vandalism and stone-pelting in opposition to the bill that aims to naturalise persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries.
In Meerut, the police had received a tip-off that things could turn ugly on Friday. Soon after the Friday prayers, a crowd of people wearing black bands came out from the Jama Masjid at around 2 pm to protest against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. When police tried to stop them, they started chanting slogans against the police after which the police lathi-charged them. After that, 15-20 miscreants reached the Lisadi gate intersection and started creating ruckus there. As the crowd kept swelling, the protestors started throwing stones at the police forces.
DM and SSP reached the spot as bullet started flying from both sides. On Hapur road, where around 25-30 RAF police trainees were deployed, realising that the police deployment is less, the agitating crowd shifted there, vandalising scores of vehicles and pelting stones against the law enforcement personnel. To protect themselves from the stone pelting, the trainee policemen took shelter inside a shop, but they were taken hostage by the violent protestors inside the shop by shutting down the shutters. The mob also tried to torch the shop, but was unable to do so.
The trapped policemen called their seniors, and a police force from Nauchandi police station reached the spot, but their vehicles were also stopped and they were attacked with stoned by the protesters. After that, the police opened fire on the mob, and eventually rescued the trapped RAF soldiers and brought the spiralling situation under control. The soldiers were trapped inside the building for around an hour before being rescued. The Islamabad police station was also set ablaze by the violent demonstrators.
Four rioters-Asif(20), Mohsin(25), Zaheer(25) and Asif(25) were killed in police retaliation. 50 policemen were also injured in stone-pelting and other violent incidents, 3 of them were shot bullets at by the ‘protestors’ protesting against the CAA. The police have so far filed 6 cases against the rioters in three police stations in Meerut.
Similarly, in Muzzafarnagar, after offering the namaz, people started gathering on the grounds of Islamia Inter College. The crazed mob then started pelting stones and petrol bottles at the police. The miscreants set a branch of Dena Bank near Meenakshi Chowk on fire.
