Image Courtesy: theprint.in
Uttar Pradesh may top the states with the maximum death toll of at the minimum six protesters in the #anti-CAA, #anti-NPR/NRC upsurge in different parts of the country. UP is notorious for its unprofessional police force that often uses the unchecked power of the bullet, to kill. While the Director General of Police (DGP) UP, Om Prakash Singh told the media that six persons have died, unconfirmed reports say that the death toll may have risen to 14! While the official narrative is that the action was on”lawless” protesters, eye-witness accounts suggest that it is unbridled police action that is the cause of the deaths.
Among all the BJP-ruled states that have witnessed violence, and resulted in the deaths of three at the minimum (Mangaluru, Karnataka and Lucknow, UP) Uttar Pradesh’s crackdown has been the most brutal. 69 persons have been illegally arrested or detained in Banaras/Varanasi and as many as 62 at least have been arrested/detained in Lucknow. Sadaf Jafar, a former teacher and activist is the only woman to be detained in Lucknow. Serious sections of the law (unbailable offences) have been slapped on all of the peaceful protesters.
Senior human rights defender and advocate Mohammad Shoaib has not just been detained or arrest but there is no trace of him. Shohaib, the president, Socialist Party (India), was picked up from his house at 11:45 pm yesterday and retired IPS S.R. Darapuri today at 11:30 am.
According to a statement by Sandeep Pandey, Vice President, Socialist Party, “Police is raiding houses of senior Human Rights Defender and Former IPS officer SR Darapuri, whose residence is in Indira Nagar. Yesterday, 76 year old Sr.Advocate Shoib, (who also has Heart Condition) was picked up from his home and his family still has no idea of whether he has been arrested or detained.”
The Uttar Pradesh police had on Wednesday issued notices to more than 3,000 people across the state, cautioning them to not participate in protests against the Citizenship Act. It looks like UP Police is making arbitrary arrests without any evidence or due process across the state of UP.
According to a statement issued by two Varanasi based organisations, the Varanasi Nagrik Samaj and Sanjhi Sanskriti Manch, of the 69 people arrested yesterday from Varanasi during the peaceful protest against #anti-CAA and #anti-NRC, were mostly students of BHU and civil society members who have been challenging Modi regime & the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) control in BHU and Varanasi city for the last three years. They have been part of the group that was central to the women’s movement of September 2017 & 2019 at BHU. They were reportedly targeted and detained by them and serious sections of the law, IPC 296/19, 332, 353, 147, 148 of CRC slammed on them! Many of these are unbailable offences.
Names of those detained in Varanasi are: Manish Sharma, Sanjiv Sinh, Anup Shramik, Divakar, Ravi Shekhar, Ekta Shekhar, SP Rai, Shahid Jamal, Father Anand, Ram Janam Yadav, Mohammad Ahmad, Chandar Sagar are some of them. Others are Dhananjay Tripathi, Nandlal Patel, Surendra Yadav, Anil Kumar Sinh, Vivek Mishra, Ravindra Prakash Bharti, Raj Abhishek, Shiv Nath Yadav, Satish Sinh, Nanda Ram Shastri, Dr Chuni Lal Verma, Feroz, Sania, Dr Nirala, Ghanshyam Trivedi, Akbar, Shahid Jamal, Narendra Tripathi, Gaurav Tripathi, Jayshankar Singh, Lalmani Verma, Vijay Kumar, Mani Verma, Rajnath Pandey, Jay Shankar Pandey, Pyarelal Patel, Arpit Giri, Shivraj, Rohan.
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