Internet suspended in Aligarh after clashes between police, anti-CAA protesters

Authorities suspended the internet in Aligarh after clashes broke out between police and anti-CAA protesters in the old city area on Sunday. 

Police said a 22-year-old man was shot at and injured by a miscreant.

Officials claimed that people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) indulged in arson and stone-pelting.

Aligarh District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said police fired teargas shells to disperse the mob after they indulged in vandalisation of property and threw stones at security personnel in upper Kot area of the city. 

Protestors pelted stones at Police vehicles so Police had to resort to teargas to disperse them, Singh said. 

The administration also suspended internet services in the city till midnight Sunday as a precautionary measure, Singh added.

Police have also detained some persons after the violence, and the protesters have been evicted from their "dharna" site, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Aligarh range) Preetinder Singh was quoted as saying by PTI. 

Singh said the violence broke out at a spot on the Mohamed Ali Road leading to the Kotwali police station where some women protestors were holding a dharna since Saturday with the police trying to evict protesters from there.

The trouble began around 5 pm when the police tried to persuade women protestors at Upper Kot near Kotwali to evict them from the road, he said.

"We told them that women protestors were already holding a dharna at Eidgah and they would not be permitted to hold another such protest near Kotwali," said Singh.

"Even as efforts were underway to convince women to leave the area with prominent Muslim citizens of the area, including the Sahar mufti Abdul Khalid trying to defuse the situation, mayhem broke out and brick-batting started," he said. 

"An electricity department transformer was set afire but police managed to douse the flames before they could spread," he said.

He said the situation in Upper Kot area is "tense but under control" and "an intense patrolling of the affected areas is underway."

PV Ramasastry, ADG Law and Order said in Lucknow that the incident took place because of a rumour that Police is arresting protesters. 

'The situation is under control now. The incident happened for spreading a rumour that Police is arresting protesters. Strict action will be taken against those who are spreading rumours," he said, adding that a probe will be conducted. 

There were also reports of injuries to some people. A 22-year-old man, identified as Tariq, was among those injured. 

His father reportedly told the cops he suffered the bullet injury after a "miscreant" opened fire at him amid clashes between police and protesters.

He has been admitted at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital at Aligarh Muslim University where his condition is said to be "serious".