Clashes break out between police, violent anti-CAA protesters in Aligarh, five injured

Clashes broke out between police and violent, anti-CAA protesters in the old city area here on Sunday, in which at least five persons were injured, two of them critically, said officials.

With protesters indulging in arson, vandalisation of property and stone-pelting at security personnel in Upper Kot area under Kotwali police station limit, the police fired teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the mob, said Aligarh District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh.

Following the violence, the district adminstration also suspended internet services in the city till midnight today as a precautionary measure, Singh added.

Those injured in clashes included a 22-year-old onlooker, who was, according to his father, fired at and injured by a miscreant, whom, he said, he recognises.

Four others in the mob suffered injuries from pellets and rubber bullets, two of them in their eyes, with one of them likely to lose his left eye, said doctors treating them.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Aligarh range) Preetinder Singh, meanwhile, told PTI that police have also detained some persons after the violence.

The protesters too have been evicted from their "dharna" site, he added.

Aligarh DM Singh said the violence broke out at a spot on Mohamed Ali Road leading to the Kotwali police station where some women protestors were holding a dharna since Saturday with the police trying to evict protesters from there.

The trouble began around 5 pm when the police tried to persuade women protestors at Upper Kot near Kotwali to evict them from the road, he said.

"We told them that women protestors were already holding a dharna at Eidgah and they would not be permitted to hold another such protest near Kotwali," said Singh.

He said "even as efforts were underway to convince women to leave the area with prominent Muslim citizens of the area, including the Sahar mufti Abdul Khalid trying to defuse the situation, mayhem broke out and brick-batting started.."
Describing the situation in Upper Kot area as "tense but under control" Singh said "an intense patrolling of the affected areas is underway and the police are trying to trace out those who were "instigating" the women protestors at Upper Kot since yesterday"