Aligarh
India has suspended mobile Internet in Aligarh, a city in the Uttar Pradesh state, for at least six hours, according to NDTV, after violent clashes broke out between authorities and activists protesting a controversial citizenship law.
According to the publication, violence erupted when police clashed with people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), in Aligarh’s Uparkot Kotwali neighbourhood, leading to stone-pelting, a shop being set ablaze, and a police officer’s bike burnt to the ground.
Authorities, however, responded with baton-charging and relentlessly firing tear gas at the demonstrators. Police maintained that it was the protesters who had initiated the aggressive behaviour, the publication reported. It added that the city’s district magistrate, Chandra Bhushan Singh, said violence was brought under control and the mob dispersed.
“We have held peace meetings and asked Muslim community leaders, including the Imam of the Jama Masjid, to act as interlocutors,” NDTV quoted Singh as saying.—AFP
