The Uttar Pradesh Police has reportedly released a series of photos and videos of violent protesters firing at the cops during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
In photos released by the police, a man in a blue jacket is seen walking around with a gun. Another person was also captured in photos firing at the cops.
Sixteen people were reportedly killed in anti-CAA protests in the state and 24 in the country, over the past two weeks during clashes between police and anti-Citizenship Act protestors.
The videos released by the police are from Meerut that was rocked by violence on Friday last.
Meerut witnessed some of the worst incidents of violence during protests against the amended citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Around six people were killed in protests.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has only accepted that firing took place in Bijnor. But video clips that have surfaced suggest firing took place at many places in the state.
Although many of the bodies of those killed in violence bore gunshot wounds, the state police insisted that they did not shoot anything other than plastic pellets and rubber bullets.
Reports have also emerged of police cracking down on areas across the state where violence had broken out, allegedly indulging in vandalism, destruction of property and even assault.
However, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh has claimed that the police also suffered heavy losses.
“As many as 288 policemen were injured in violence that erupted across 21 districts. Sixty-two of them suffered firearm injuries,” he said.
Singh also said that the police have recovered 500 cartridges of prohibited bores from places where violence broke out.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the destruction of public property during the violent agitations against the CAA and asked protesters to introspect if their actions have been ‘good or not’.
“I want to ask people who resorted to violence in Uttar Pradesh to sit at home and ask themselves whether what they did is good or not. They destroyed buses and public property that belongs to the future generation,” he said at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow.