UP police admits IAS aspirant was killed in firing at protesters

Bijnor/Lucknow (UP): The district police in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, said on Tuesday that a youth died when they fired in self-defence last week, contradicting an earlier claim by the state DGP that no one was killed in police firing during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Bijnor’s superintendent of police (rural) Vishwajeet Srivastava on Tuesday said a 22-year-old man was killed when a policeman opened fire while facing a violent mob in Nahtaur area.

“On December 20, after Friday prayers, a violent mob attacked a police station and snatched the pistol of sub-inspector Ashish Tomar,” he said. A constable was fired at when he tried to get it back. “When the constable opened fire in self-defence, it hit ‘upadravi’ (troublemaker) Suleiman and he died,” the SP added.

Kanpur police made a similar admission, saying they opened fire in the air but nobody was injured.

This is the first time that the state police accepted that they opened fire during the protests in the state. Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police O.P. Singh had so far maintained that no one was killed in police firing and blamed the deaths mostly on “cross-firing”.

At least 17 people have been reported killed in anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh.

On Sunday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had visited Suleiman’s family in Bijnor.

Suleiman’s mother “told me with tear-filled eyes” that her son has been “martyred” for the country, according to the Congress leader. The youth’s family said he had been preparing for the civil services entrance exam and claimed he had nothing to do with the protests.

Another man, Anis, died in firing from the mob in the district, the SP said.

Amid severe criticism for disproportionate use of force and allegations of targeting only Muslims, arresting juveniles and charging them with attempt to murder (IPC 307), Bijnor superintendent of police Sanjiv Tyagi said police used minimum force against the protesters. “They put children in the front and resorted to slogan shouting, stone pelting and arson,” he said.

But Kanpur’s senior SP Anant Deo Tiwari admitted that some policemen had loaded their weapons and opened fire, as shown in video clips on news channels and social media. But he added that the firing was in self-defence.

“They fired four rounds but it was in the air,” Mr Tiwari said, claiming that nobody was injured.

Asked specifically if the death of a person in Kanpur was due to a police bullet, he said, “Forensic examination will establish it.”

Contradictory claims from both sides are coming over police firing in which 17 people have died across UP and several injured. While the police has been maintaining that it has been restrained, people have taken to the social media to prove otherwise.

Several videos of police firing on protesters and attacking protests have surfaced. A video showing a police sub-inspector purportedly loading his pistol, amid the sound of gunfire, is circulating which appears to be from Yateemkhana area in Kanpur. Another video, purportedly related to the violence earlier at Aligarh Muslim University, shows students pushing at the campus gate. The protesters were apparently trying to get out when the police was trying to confine them to campus.

Police had said only protesters used firearms in the violence last Thursday, and then after the Friday prayers. They also said that 288 policemen have been injured across the state, including 62 who suffered firearm injuries.

Police claimed over 700 live and empty cartridges were seized.

The police in Rampur claimed to have identified 150 for vandalism last week during anti-CAA, NRC protests, and among them is a close aide of Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan.

“More than 150 people have been identified so far for causing damages to public and private property. Parvez, a driver and close associate of former state minister Azam Khan, is also seen in pictures and video footages hurling stones at the police personnel,” Rampur superintendent of police Ajay Pal Sharma said. So far, 33 people have been arrested in Rampur in connection with the violence, the police said.

Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav has questioned the UP government’s claim of “outsiders’ role” in the protests in the state and wondered what the authorities did to stop the agitators. He was referring to UP deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma’s statement, who on Sunday alleged “outsiders’ role” in the violence and pointed out that persons hailing from West Bengal’s Malda district, associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI), had been arrested by the state police.

“The government is saying that people from West Bengal came here (to indulge in violence)... Then what were you (government) doing? From Bengal, news is coming that some people (from BJP) were involved in arsoning after they changed their clothes,” Mr Yadav told reporters.

Another top UP politician and Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati said the Centre should allay concerns of Muslims over the CAA and the NRC and urged the Muslim community to stay alert from being politically exploited on the pretext of (protest against) this issue.