UP: Police Tightens Security, Paramilitary Forces on Night Patrol After CAA Rules Notified

Lucknow: Fearing protests, security has been tightened in many parts of Uttar Pradesh, after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules were notified on Monday. Paramilitary personnel conducted night patrols and flag marches in Western Uttar Pradesh, including Meerut, Bijnor, Firozabad, Muzaffarnagar and Lucknow, which were the epicentre of resistance in the past.

UP Director General of Police (DGP) Prashant Kumar, confirming the development, said: "We are already on alert. Our teams are patrolling. It (CAA) was expected and Uttar Pradesh Police is fully prepared to deal with any situation,” adding that state police had already done its groundwork.

He directed officials to conduct a comprehensive briefing of the entire police force through the district information system, social media cell, and control room, with special monitoring of social media activities and swift legal action against those spreading malicious or inflammatory content.

Another official said that the police have held nearly 30 meetings with peace committee members to ensure that people do not fall prey to rumours. Patrolling will be increased on Tuesday.

Lucknow, Bareilly, Meerut, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Prayagraj, Moradabad, Rampur, Bijnor, Ghaziabad, Ghazipur and Varanasi districts are being kept under watch for “unlawful” gatherings. Orders have also been given to increase night patrolling and foot patrolling in all these areas.

Police officials said they were in touch with different religious leaders and had communicated with them to “make them understand” the salient features of the Act.

The Centre on Monday notified the rules for implementation of the controversial CAA four years after its was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and received Presidential assent soon after. The Centre had notified the Act in January but sought more time to frame the rules.

The Narendra Modi government’s decision to notify the implementation of CAA, which saw huge protests across the country as well as widespread crackdown, comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and was among top items on the political agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election manifesto.

With the CAA rules being notified, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from the three countries.

Meanwhile, Lucknow commissioner of police SB Shirodkar has appealed to people to maintain peace and harmony in the state capital.

“If anyone has any problem about the CAA notification, it is requested that they peacefully put up their point,” he said.

“People spreading fake messages are being monitored by our social media team and they will be dealt with sternly,” he added.

The DGP headquarters has also been asked to monitor social media to control content that can instigate the public.

Meanwhile, the police across the state have been instructed to patrol sensitive areas on foot. CCTV and drone cameras will be deployed to monitor the situation in the state.

Reacting to the move, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, "When the citizens of the country are forced to go out for livelihood, then what will happen by bringing 'citizenship law' for others? The public has now understood the BJP's game of politics of distraction," Yadav said in a post on X.

He further added that the BJP government at the Centre should also explain why lakhs of citizens gave up their citizenship of the country during their rule.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said that the BJP government should have cleared all kinds of doubts, confusion and fear about the CAA instead of implementing it before Lok Sabha elections.

In her post on X, Mayawati said, “Instead of implementing the citizenship amendment law before the election, it would have been better to implement it only after clearing doubts, confusion and fears.”

Read Also: Who Were 23 People Killed in UP During Anti-CAA-NRC Protests?

Notably, Uttar Pradesh witnessed the highest casualties during the anti-CAA and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) protests in 2020. Twenty-three people were killed in the brutal state crackdown. Most of the dead were Muslim daily wagers who succumbed to alleged police bullets, as reported by NewsClick.

The highest death toll in the crackdown is reported from Firozabad district, with seven people killed, followed by Meerut which saw five casualties, three in Kanpur, two each in Bijnor and Sambhal and one each in Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur and Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home turf.