At least two people were killed in violent protests in Mangaluru against the amended Citizenship Act on Thursday, reports said. The city had witnessed high-pitched clashes between stone-throwing crowds and police since afternoon, despite prohibitory orders.
Muslim Central Committee president Mohammad Masood said Nausheen Kudroli (23) and Abdul Jaleel (49) died in police firing. Quoting officials in a city hospital, the Reuters reported that at least one of the two dead had been shot. However, neither the police nor the government has confirmed the deaths.
Mangaluru Police Commissioner P.S. Harsha said the police were forced to open fire after the situation turned volatile as the protesters started pelting stones.
Meanwhile, one person died of firearm injury during violent protests in Lucknow. "Mohammad Wakeel (25) died of firearm injury here," King George's Medical University (KGMU) Trauma Centre in-charge Sandeep Tiwari told PTI.
"Two other patients are undergoing treatment in the trauma centre and one of them has firearm injury," he said.
Protesters went berserk in parts of the city, hurling stones and damaging police outposts and a number of vehicles mainly in the Old City areas, forcing police to use tear-gas shells to control the situation.
The protesters torched a state-run bus at Parivartan Chowk, close to the district magistrate's office, and set on fire a police post in Satkhanda area.
Defying unprecedented prohibitory orders across regions, simultaneous protests broke out in multiple cities, prompting authorities to detain a large number of activists and students and clamp down on mobile services in parts of the national capital and other states.
While the protests remained largely peaceful at most places, there were reports of violent clashes and arson in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Rail and road traffic was hit across several states.
Prominent citizens hit the streets in Bengaluru and Chennai alongside students, activists and the general public to oppose the contentious law.
Protests were also held at Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Hassan, Mysuru and Ballary in Karnataka where police detained demonstrators for violation of prohibitory orders which is in force in various parts of the state including Bengaluru and Mangaluru till December 21.
In Hyderabad, hundreds of protestors, including activists of Left parties and about 50 students of the University of Hyderabad were taken into preventive custody to foil attempts to hold protests against the Act.
In Tiruvananthapuram, hundreds of activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the youth wing of CPI(M) took out a protest march to Raj Bhavan.
In Chennai, noted Carnatic music vocalist T M Krishna, and Tamil actor Siddarth were among the hordes of people from different walks of life who participated in a protest demonstration against the CAA.
With inputs from PTI
