Internet cut in parts of UP ahead of Friday prayers

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government suspended Internet services in “sensitive” districts and beefed up security deployment ahead of Friday prayers, a week after violence erupted over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in parts of the state.

Internet connectivity has been snapped in districts including Agra, Bulandshahr, Bijnor, Mathura, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Sambhal, Meerut and Sitapur till at least Friday evening.

Director general of police OP Singh told ET that he had also ordered that Special Investigation Teams (SITs) be set up across the state at district level to supervise ongoing investigations into the spate of violence witnessed last week, in order to "standardise" and improve the quality of investigation underway. The announcement on SITs comes a day after an inquiry was ordered into the violence that took place in Kanpur, where two people were allegedly killed in police firing.


The SITs will be formed at the district level and headed by the additional superintendent of police (crime) or other officers of competent ranking in all districts to look into cases related to the protests. “We were seeing cases of different nature coming to light and so we thought there should be some standardisation and all cases should be clubbed together at the district level to infuse a sense of professionalism into the investigation,” said Singh. Flag marches were conducted in cities that witnessed violence last Friday and left 19 people dead. “We are also conducting more and more confidence-building exercises,” said Singh. In the state capital Lucknow, strategic deployment of forces has continued throughout the week, he said. “During prayers last Friday, stone pelting incidents happened that were curtailed. We are prepared for tomorrow,” superintendent of police of Gorakhpur, Sunil Gupta, said on Thursday.

In Sambhal, which saw significant damage to public property on Thursday last week, meetings were held with peace committees and religious leaders. “We have also distributed pamphlets about CAA and the security has not been thinned since last week. Internet has been suspended,” SP of Sambhal, Yamuna Prasad, told ET.

According to the latest figures shared by the UP Police on Thursday, 327 first information reports (FIRs) have been registered across the state related to the protests. While 113 people have been arrested, preventive action has been taken against 19 people. In addition, 124 people have been arrested for posting inciting content on social media. Of the 288 police personnel injured in the protests, 61 had received bullet injuries, as per the figures.