NEW DELHI – Fresh clashes between Indian police and demonstrators eruptedon Friday after more than a week of deadly unrest triggered by acitizenship law seen as anti-Muslim.
Three protesters were shot dead on Thursday, taking the death toll to ninein the wave of anger that is emerging as a major challenge to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.
The law making it easier for persecuted minorities from three neighbouringcountries to get citizenship but not if they are Muslims, has stoked fearsthat Modi wants to remould India as a Hindu nation, which he denies.
Tens of thousands on Thursday hit the streets nationwide, with violenceerupting in several places including Lucknow in the north, Mangalore in thesouth, and Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
In Mangalore, security forces opened fire on a crowd of around 200 peopleafter they ignored orders to disperse, killing two people, police spokesmanQadir Shah told AFP. Four others were in hospital with gunshot wounds.
“They marched towards the busiest area of Mangalaru. This led to lathi(big, wooden sticks) charge. Then the tear gas was fired. When theprotestors still didn’t stop, the police had to open fire,” he said, usingan alternate name for the city.
Another protester succumbed to gunshot injuries in Lucknow, the capital ofIndia’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, said a doctor who did not wantto be named, with vehicles and a police post set on fire in one district.
Police denied opening fire in the city, which is home to a large Muslimminority, but his father told the Times of India his son was shot aftergetting caught in a crowd of protesters while out to buy groceries.
Fresh clashes erupted in Lucknow on Friday when police halted a few hundredpeople on their way to a planned protest, with security forces firing teargas and charging with batons, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Elsewhere, there were no major incidents although police bundled hundredsof people onto buses in Delhi and Bangalore after they defied bans onassembly including a prominent rights activist and an internationallyrenowned historian.
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– Emergency laws –
The protests have in places seen demonstrators hurl rocks at securityforces and set fire to vehicles, while alleged police brutality –including at a Delhi university on Sunday — has fuelled the anger.
The authorities have scrambled to contain the situation, imposing emergencylaws, blocking internet access, and shutting down shops and restaurants insensitive pockets across the country.
In Uttar Pradesh — home to over 200 million people — mobile internet andtext messaging services were cut in several areas including in Ghaziabad,which neighbours Delhi.
Mobile phone services were also briefly suspended Thursday in parts ofDelhi, and access in parts of northeast India — where the wave of protestsbegan — was only restored on Friday.
In a strongly worded editorial, the Indian Express Friday said thegovernment must do all it can “to keep the peace” in the country, home to200 million Muslims.
“But in doing so the world’s largest democracy cannot look like it cannotaccommodate its young who disagree, it cannot afford to signal that it isso ill at ease with itself.
“India risks a lot if it begins to be seen as a place where the dissenter’smind is not without fear.” – APP/AFP
