6 people hailing from Malda arrested from the site of violence: Lucknow SSP

Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani on Saturday said that six people hailing from West Bengal's Malda have been arrested from the site of violence in Lucknow.

"We have arrested six persons who hail from Malda in West Bengal. They were arrested from the spot of violence in Lucknow," Naithani told ANI here.

He said that so far around 220 people have been arrested in this regard.

"We are analysing the footage of the violence, photographs in the media and will arrest more people who were involved in the violence," he added.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh had on Saturday said that extra measures have been taken to avoid violence in the future and said that the guilty will not be let off easily.

"Outsiders were involved in the violence as per the preliminary investigations. We are investigating all angles to find out the involvement of NGOs or political persons in this," Singh said.

Earlier, amid the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had appealed to people to maintain peace and to not believe in any rumours.

"No one should take the law into their hands," Adityanath said in a statement.

The Chief Minister also directed police to search for those who were misleading people regarding the Act and spreading rumours and causing violence.

On Friday, clashes between the police and protesters erupted in various districts of Uttar Pradesh including Bahraich, Bareilly, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Gorakhpur, Sambhal etc.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.