CAA row: UP death toll rises to 15, protests continue

One person was killed after police allegedly opened fire to disperse people protesting against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur town, about 325 kilometres from here, on Saturday, taking the death toll in the current wave of protests in the state to 15.

According to the police sources here, the protesters torched several vehicles and pelted stones on the security personnel near the Jama Masjid area in Rampur. In Pilibhit district, about 300 kilometres from here, large groups of people came out on the streets to protest against the CAA.

Over two hundred people, including cops, were injured in the protests across the state since Thursday. Some of the injured people who suffered bullet injuries were said to be serious.

The death toll in the violent clashes between police and protesters in the state rose to 15 though the state police chief O.P.Singh confirmed only nine deaths. ''This figure may rise,'' Singh, however, told reporters on Saturday.

Singh reiterated that the police had not opened fire on the protesters anywhere despite the claims by the doctors that all deceased bore gunshot wounds. ''They (deceased) may have been killed in cross-firing among the protesters,'' he said.

While Meerut alone accounted for four deaths, the other deaths were reported from Sambhal, Bijnor, Kanpur, Ferozabad and Lucknow. An eight-year-old child died after being trampled by a crowd following a chase by the cops in Varanasi on Friday.

According to the police sources, over 600 people have so far been arrested in connection with the violence in different parts of the state since Thursday.

''More arrests are likely in the next few days after identification of the rioters,'' said a senior police official here.

At least 10,000 people from different parts of the state have been booked on charges of rioting, destruction of public properties and other sections of the IPC.

Though the UP police chief assured that no innocent would be arrested, there were reports that the police were conducting late-night raids on homes of Muslims in Lucknow, Kanpur and other places and picking up their male members.