Anti-CAA stir: Police post torched in Kanpur; death toll in UP violence rises to 15

A police post was torched in Kanpur on Saturday amid fresh incidents of anti-citizenship protests in Uttar Pradesh's several districts including in Rampur and Aligarh as the toll in the violence in the last two days rose to 15.

Over 260 policemen were also injured, of whom 57 received gunshot wounds, IG (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar told PTI on Saturday.

"Women and children were used as shields by the protestors," Director General of Police O P Singh said, maintaining that the police did not open fire.

"All the deaths that took place have been in cross firing and this will become clear in postmortem examination," the DGP told reporters.

"We are clear and transparent in this. If anyone died due to our fire we will conduct a judicial inquiry and take action. But nothing happened from our side," the DGP stressed.

Police had no option but to resort to lathi charge to chase them away, he said, adding that tear gas shells were used for dispersing the mob.

At least 15 people have lost their lives in Uttar Pradesh since protests broke out on Thursday against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, IG Kumar said.

In Kanpur, anti-CAA protestors on Saturday set Yatimkhana police post on fire and indulged in heavy brickbatting, leading to injury to some people.

Police had to lob tear gas shells and use canes to chase them away, and fire tenders were rushed to control the flame.

ADG (Kanpur) Prem Prakash said Rapid Action Force has been called out along with 'Vajr' vehicles to control the situation.

Samajwadi Party MLA Amitabh Bajpai and former party MLA Kamlesh Tewari were arrested as a precautionary measure and their vehicles seized.

Officials said crowds gathered in areas like Babupurva, Nai Sadak, Moolganj, Dalelpurva and Haleem College and police in large numbers was deployed to keep a watch over the situation.

Clashes broke out in Rampur between anti-CAA protesters and police on Saturday, resulting in injuries to several people, including policemen, officials said.

Around 400 to 500 people gathered here to protest against the 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 Aunjaneya Singh said.

"Over a dozen policemen also suffered minor injuries during stone pelting by the protesters, including children aged between 12 and 18 years," he told PTI.

Another dozen protesters suffered minor injuries in tear gas shelling by 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."