ALIGARH (UP), Feb 23: Clashes broke out between police and violent, anti-CAA protesters in the old city area here today, 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 administration 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..”
The district magistrate said police used tear gas shells to disperse the mob.
“An electricity department transformer was set afire but police managed to douse the flames before they could spread,” he said.
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”
One of the injured included 22-year-old man Tariq, whose father and brother told police at hospital in presence of this reporter that he suffered the bullet injury after a “miscreant” opened fire at him amid clashes between police and protesters.
Tariq was admitted at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital at Aligarh Muslim University here, where doctors described his condition as “serious”.
The victim has suffered the bullet injury in stomach, they said.
Tariq’s father told police at the hospital that his son was standing in front of his house when he was shot at by a miscreant whom he recognises.
A hospital spokesperson said a total of five persons have been admitted to the hospital after the clashes.
Injured included a 25-year-old man, Mohammad Ibrahim, who suffered pellet injury in his left eye.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out Sunday evening between pro and anti-CAA groups near Jaffrabad in northeast Delhi after a large number of people who have been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act blocked a road, while similar sit-ins started in several others part of the national capital.
Police fired tear gas shells as members of the two groups pelted stones at each other in Maujpur, soon after a gathering called by BJP leader Kapil Mishra who demanded that the police remove anti-CAA protestors within three days.
Tension prevailed in Jaffrabad area and a large number of security personnel deployed as hundreds of people, mostly women, who had been protesting against the CAA, blocked a road near the metro station since the Saturday evening, demanding a rollback of the contentious act.
Chandra Shekhar Aazad-led Bhim Army had also given call for ‘Bharat bandh’ and demonstrations against the CAA.
Similar protests, which mirrored the Shaheen Bagh sit-in where demonstrators have blocked a road since December, started in Khureji Khaas in Karawal Nagar and Chandbagh in northeast Delhi, and Hauz Rani in South Delhi on Sunday, prompting the police to step up security.
For security reasons, the entry and exit gates of Jaffrabad and Maujpur-Babarpur were closed.
The 400-metre-stretch between Maujpur traffic signal, where a Shani temple is located, to Babarpur station, was strewn with bricks and stones after the clashed.
The two groups blamed each other for starting the violence.
Delhi Police personnel later stopped the pro-CAA protestors when they tried to march towards Kardampuri where another anti-CAA protest was on. The security personnel formed a human-chain to separate the groups and defuse tension.
“We are trying to identify the people behind the incident,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range) Alok Kumar told reporters.
The situation is under control now, a senior police official said.
“We are continuously speaking to local leaders so that peace prevails in the area and are also requesting protesters to clear the main road,” he said.
He said that police personnel have been deployed at Maujpur area to prevent any untoward incident.
Taking to Twitter, Mishra said, “We have given a three-day ultimatum to the Delhi Police to get the road cleared. Get the Jaffrabad and Chandbagh road cleared.”
In a video tweeted by him in which he is addressing the gathering, Mishra said, “They (protestors) want to create trouble in Delhi, that’s why they have closed the roads. That’s why they have created a riot-like situation here. We have not pelted any stones.”
“Till the US president is in India, we are leaving the area peacefully. After that we won’t listen to you (police) if the roads are not vacated by then,” he told the gathering. (PTI)
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