Lucknow:
UP police on Monday claimed more than 700 cartridges were recovered during anti-citizenship law protests in the state, maintaining that they did not use any of them. On Monday, the state remained peaceful with no report of any untoward incident.
“Law and order is under control, situation is normal in UP. 213 FIRs have been filed, 925 persons have been arrested so far (since Dec 10) in connection with anti-CAA protests in the state,” an official statement issued by police said.
As many as 288 policemen have suffered injuries, of which 62 have firearm injuries.
“Live and fired cartridges of non-prohibited bore (not used by police) in excess of 700 have been recovered from ‘peacefully protesting’ citizens,” the police tweeted.
Meanwhile, a video has gone viral in which a sub-inspector is seen loading his pistol amid what sounded like gunshots. The 90-second video shows a Khakhi-clad policeman with chest guard and helmet loading his pistol during a protest against the amended law.
The video appeared to be from Yateemkhana area in Kanpur.
Senior police officials, including IG Mohit Agarwal, have claimed that police did not resort to firing to control the protesters.
Several districts of the state were hit by protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The police blamed “outsiders” associated with Islamic outfits like PFI and SIMI for the violence in which 17 people died.
