Members of the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr handed over a cheque of over Rs 6 lakh to the district administration after the Friday prayers against the value of property damaged during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on December 20.

The district authorities were told that the money amounting to Rs 6.27 lakh was collected from the community which agreed to deposit it to pay for the damage to government vehicles and other property during the violent protests.

“We were saddened by the damage to public and government property and therefore we have come forward to hand over a cheque of Rs 6.27 lakh to pay for the damages. Members of the community themselves came forward with contributions,” Haji Akram Ali, a member of the delegation, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The District Magistrate (DM), Bulandshahr, Ravindra Kumar appreciated the move by the community and said that it will ensure that such things will not happen in the future.

Protests erupted in several parts of the country last week, including Uttar Pradesh, over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Violence broke out in many parts of Uttar Pradesh between December 19 and 21, claiming as many as 21 lives.

As per the Information & Communication Department of UP, 498 people have been identified in connection with the damage caused to public property during recent protests in Lucknow, Meerut, Sambhal, Rampur, Muzaffarnagar, Ferozabad, Kanpur Nagar, Mau and Bulandshahar.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following violence related to anti-CAA protests in the past one week.

During raids at various places, the police recovered 35 illegal weapons which were used during the riots to fire at the police.

The police have also reportedly recovered 500 cartridges of prohibited bores from places where violence broke out.

Protests against CAA that were earlier confined to the northeast, swept the entire country after several protesters, including students, clashed with the police in Delhi’s Jamia Milia Islamia on December 15.