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    Police station torched in Lucknow; Media vans destroyed; One dead

    Synopsis

    A pitched battle between the crowd and the police took place, with many more protesters emerging from the narrow alleys to join the mob on the street. A PAC van was targeted, along with police motorcycles, and the Madeh Ganj police outpost was torched.

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    Around 55 people had been arrested across the city.
    LUCKNOW: Firearm injuries have claimed the life of one person and rendered two others critical in the Lucknow protests against the Ctizenship Amendment Act on Thursday. Two more persons are reported to be in a critical condition after sustaining injuries.

    “Firing was not done from our side. I do not know how that death occurred. I do not think it has anything to do with this agitation and police action,” UP DGP OP Singh told ANI.

    Of the five injured who were brought to the city’s King George Medical University (KGMU), three had suffered firearm injuries on their abdomens, Sandeep Tiwari, trauma centre in-charge at the hospital said. It remained uncertain as to who shot these people. Of the two who sustained other injuries, one is on ventilator.

    Father of the deceased, identified as Mohammad Wakeel who hails from Daulatganj area of the city, said his son was not a student and was not part of the protest. An e-rickshaw driver, he had gone to procure groceries before tension broke out. Daulatganj falls in the vicinity of Hussainabad, another area in old Lucknow, where the protests turned violent. What started as peaceful sit-ins and marches turned violent post-noon when thousands of protesters pelted stones, destroyed vehicles and media vans and torched a police station, despite an elaborate security arrangement taken by the state government.

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    In Lucknow

    Around 1.30 pm, a peaceful sit-in dharna at Khadra turned violent when “action by the police incited people, mostly young men, to throw fire bottles and pelt stones”. The force retaliated with lathi charge and tear gas shells. A pitched battle between the crowd and the police took place, with many more protesters emerging from the narrow alleys to join the mob on the street. A PAC van was targeted, along with police motorcycles, and the Madeh Ganj police outpost was torched.

    After 2 pm, the situation at Parivartan Chowk started to worsen when hundreds started taking out a protest march and raising slogans. However, after Khadra, the violence moved to Parivartan Chowk around 4 pm with the protesters pelting stones, destroying three buses and torching media OB vans.

    Around 55 people had been arrested across the city. “I have called a meeting on this. You can’t indulge in violence in the name of protests. We will take strict action against such elements. We will seize the property of those found guilty and compensate the damage done to public property,” chief minister Adityanath said in a statement. He attacked SP and Congress for “pushing the country to the grip of violence and arson in the name of ‘Mahabandi’.

    Many influential people, including Mohammad Shoaib, a Lucknow based lawyer and president of a human rights group Rihai Manch, were placed under house arrest ahead of the protests.


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    ( Originally published on Dec 19, 2019 )
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