Fri 20 December 2019:
Indians are defying bans on assembly in cities nationwide as anger swells against a citizenship law seen as discriminatory against Muslims, following days of protests and clashes that have left nine dead.
Two people died of injuries suffered in violent protests in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, on Thursday, according to hospital officials.
The men, aged 23 and 49, “died in police firing during the protests”, Qadir Shah, a spokesman for the deputy commissioner of Mangalore, told AFP news agency, adding that authorities had imposed a curfew in some areas.
Four others were being treated at a hospital in Mangalore “with bullet injuries following the clashes”, a district medical officer told AFP.
Shah said police fired their weapons after some 200 demonstrators refused to stop their march.
“They marched towards the busiest area of Mangalaru. This led to lathi (big, wooden sticks) charge. Then the tear gas was fired. When the protestors still didn’t stop, the police had to open fire after that,” he said.
Another person was taken to a trauma centre in the Uttar Pradesh state capital of Lucknow with a gunshot injury, but died soon after, a hospital source told AFP. At least three others were injured.
Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police and set fire to vehicles in Lucknow, where orders prohibiting gatherings of more than five people are in place.
Hundreds of demonstrators were detained on Thursday in the Indian capital of New Delhi and the southern IT hub of Bengaluru, where a leading historian was among those taken away by the police.
Authorities banned gatherings in the entire Uttar Pradesh state – India’s most populous – as well as in parts of the country’s northeast, the state of Bihar and cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.
Two major Indian telecom firms, Vodafone and Airtel, on Thursday said they have cut mobile services in parts of New Delhi on government orders.
Fourteen Delhi metro stations were shut including one near police headquarters, besieged by protesters earlier this week, as some roads into the megacity were blocked, causing immense traffic jams.
‘Excessive force’
The UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday the global body was “concerned about the violence and alleged use of excessive force by security forces that we’ve seen that have been taking place”.
At a news conference with his Indian counterpart on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington cares deeply about protecting religious rights everywhere but gave a muted answer on the issue.
“We honour Indian democracy as they have a robust debate inside India on the issue,” he said.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar repeated the government’s line that it was a measure designed to address the needs of persecuted religious minorities.
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