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Agence France-Presse

Five more protesters died in fresh clashes on Friday between Indian police and demonstrators, taking the death toll to 14 from more than a week of unrest triggered by a citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim, as thousands rallied at the nation’s biggest mosque.
The law – making it easier for persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries to gain citizenship, but not if they are Muslim – has stoked fears Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould India as a Hindu nation, which he denies.
The latest deaths, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, followed the loss of three lives on Thursday when police opened fire on protesters in northern Lucknow and southern Mangalore cities.
Four of the demonstrators – two from Meerut district and two from neighbouring Muzaffarnagar district – died on Friday from gunshot wounds, Meerut chief medical officer Rajkumar said.


Rajkumar added that five police officers, including three with bullet wounds, were being treated in hospital.
In the city of Firozabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, a police spokesman confirmed “one person has died and at least one other is injured … during the protests”, but added the cause of death was not yet known.
Street battles also broke out in the heart of India’s capital late Friday with police firing a water cannon and baton charging protesters, who chanted anti-Modi slogans and threw stones.
A car was set on fire and a witness on the scene saw demonstrators bleeding from their heads and mouths during the clashes at Delhi Gate in the Old Delhi district.
The confrontation came as thousands regathered at Delhi Gate following an earlier sit-in in the same area after marching from India’s biggest mosque Jama Masjid in the afternoon.

“All the people here, be it those who are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian – they are all out on the streets,” Tanvi Gudiya said at another Delhi rally in a Muslim neighbourhood after Friday prayers.
“So does not it affect Modi at all? Does Modi not like anyone? Why is he becoming like Hitler?
More than a dozen metro stations in Delhi were closed for the second straight day.
Violence also spread to other parts of Uttar Pradesh, where almost 20 per cent of the 200-million population are Muslim, with demonstrators throwing stones and police firing tear gas.
India’s students lead fresh protests against ‘anti-Muslim’ citizenship law
In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, there were new clashes between security forces and protesters in Vadodara city, a day after battles in the largest city Ahmedabad left 20 policemen and 10 locals injured.
Tens of thousands had hit the streets nationwide on Thursday, with violence erupting in several places including Mangalore in the south.
Mangalore security forces opened fire on a crowd of around 200 people after they ignored orders to disperse, killing two people, the spokesman for the deputy commissioner Qadir Shah said.
Four others were in hospital with gunshot wounds, while 28 policemen were injured, medical and police officials said.
A protester succumbed to gunshot injuries in Lucknow, said a doctor who declined to be named. Officers denied opening fire in the city.

Five people were arrested for “misleading and inflammatory” social media posted, police added.
In Ahmedabad, video footage shared on social media and confirmed by police showed officers in riot gear being pelted with stones by protesters on Thursday.
Authorities have scrambled to contain the situation, imposing emergency laws, blocking internet access, and shutting down shops in sensitive areas across the country.
Mobile phone services were briefly suspended on Thursday in pockets of the capital, and access in parts of northeast India – where the wave of protests began – was only restored on Friday.


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India

Fresh protests flare over India citizenship law as death toll hits 14

Demonstrators hold the national flag of India as they attend a protest in Delhi. Photo: Reuters

Police clash with a protester during demonstrations against India's new citizenship law in Mangalore on December 19, 2019. - Indian police fired tear gas and detained hundreds of people on December 19 as fresh violence broke out and demonstrators defied bans on assembly, amid growing anger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged anti-Muslim agenda. (Photo by STR / AFP)

A policeman fires a tear gas shell at demonstrators in Lucknow, India, on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Modi’s surgical strike on Muslims puts India at war with itself

Protestors demonstrate against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Guwahati, India. Photo: Xinhua

Rohingya woman Hajira Khatoon, 27 sits at a temporary shelter provided by non-governmmental organizations and volunteers after an early Sunday fire razed down a Rohingya camp in the Kalindi Kunj area of New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 15, 2018. No casualties have been reported. (AP Photo/Oinam Anand)

epa08062915 Protesters burn items on road they protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 in Guwahati Assam, India, 11 December 2019. Hundreds of students from various collages of Guwahati took part in the protest. The passing of the bill will give Indian citizenship rights to refugees from Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsi or Christian communities coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 in the lower house of Parliament 09 December. EPA-EFE/STR

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah salutes during the graduation ceremony parade of Indian Police Service probationers at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National police academy in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

People stand in line to check their names on the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at Gumi village of Kamrup district in the Indian state of Assam on January 1, 2018. Around 13 million people in northeastern India's Assam woke up to uncertainty on January 1 after the release of an official citizenship registry with names of only 19 million of the state's over 32 million residents. The national registry of citizens (NRC) has been in works for years, after strident, decades long demands by many local groups to identify and evict "illegal foreigners" settling in the state. / AFP PHOTO / Kulendu Kalita

Indian policemen walk past a car burnt during Wednesday's protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Gauhati, India, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Police arrested dozens of people and enforced curfew on Thursday in several districts in India's northeastern Assam state where thousands protested legislation granting citizenship to non-Muslims who migrated from neighboring countries. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

WhatsApp to Bridgefy, what Hong Kong taught India’s leaderless protesters

A man runs past a burning bus set on fire by demonstrators against India’s new religion-based citizenship law. Photo: Reuters

epaselect epa07935581 A protester holds up a mobile phone with the Chinese words 'Free Hong Kong, the revolution of our times' during a rally to abolish the anti-mask law in Hong Kong, China, 20 October 2019. Hong Kong has witnessed several months of mass protests, originally triggered by a now withdrawn extradition bill, that have turned into a wider pro-democracy movement. EPA-EFE/LYNN BO BO

Students of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, an Islamic university, are stopped by police during a protest against a new citizenship law, in Lucknow, India, December 16, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer NO ARCHIVES. NO RESALES.

In India, protests over new citizenship bill as Muslims fear further persecution

Students of Gauhati University shout slogans against the citizenship amendment bill, which was passed in the lower house. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa08057763 Students of Gauhati University take part in a torchlight procession against the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 (CAB) in Guwahati, Assam, India, 09 December 2019. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on 09 December introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) during the winter session of the Indian Parliament. The passing of the bill will give Indian citizenship rights to refugees from Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsi or Christian communities coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan EPA-EFE/STR

08 December 2019, India, Guwahati: Activists of All Assam Students Union (AASU) hold lit torches during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) which proposes to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians if they entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before 31 December 2014. Photo: David Talukdar/ZUMA Wire/dpa

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Street battles broke out in the heart of with police baton charging protesters, who chanted anti-Modi slogans and threw stones
Thousands joined a rally at Jama Masjid to denounce the Citizenship Amendment Act



Street battles broke out in the heart of with police baton charging protesters, who chanted anti-Modi slogans and threw stones.


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Narendra Modi