Agencies
Rampur (UP), December 21:
Clashes broke out between anti-CAA protesters and police in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur on Saturday, resulting in injuries to several people, including policemen, officials said
Around 400 to 500 people gathered here to protest against the amended Citizenship Act amid a bandh call and five of them were taken into preventive custody, they said.
Five protesters were hospitalised and the condition of one of them was stated to be critical, District Magistrate (DM) Aunjaneya Singh said
“Over a dozen policemen also suffered minor injuries during stonepelting by the protesters, including children aged between 12 and 18 years,” he told PTI
Another dozen protesters suffered minor injuries due to tear gas shelling by the police, Singh said
The DM suspected the involvement of non-locals in the protest and said, “Police did not open fire anywhere, yet one protester had a gunshot injury.”
“Five protesters have been taken into preventive custody,” he said, adding that the agitators had called for a mass gathering at the Eidgah in the city, but the violence broke out at a distance from that site
“The police and administration officials were already at the Eidgah this morning and with the support of the Ulemas (Islamic scholars), prevented protests at the Eidgah. Some protesters, however, gathered at some distance from the Eidgah, where the clash occurred,” the DM told PTI
A bandh call was given by the anti-CAA protesters in Rampur on Saturday even as section 144 of the CrPc, which bars assembly of people, is in force in the region and the internet remains suspended.
