Following Delhi riots, security stepped up in Aligarh as Lucknow put on alert

Aligarh: Security has been stepped up here as a precautionary measure following violence in Delhi over the amended citizenship law, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Despite no untoward incident taking place in any part of the city on Tuesday, officials concerned maintained a strict vigil in all sensitive areas, he said.

While most shops in minority-dominated localities, including Upper Kot and Jiwangarh, remained closed on Tuesday, the business establishments in Dodhpur and Amirnishan which were closed on Monday reopened today.

The district authorities are making efforts to persuade shopkeepers to open their establishments and facilitate normalcy.

On Sunday evening, violence had broken out in Upper Court locality followed by clashes between anti-CAA protesters and the police in Jamalpur locality in the early hours of Monday morning.

District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said additional police force, including some senior officers, has been deployed to monitor the situation round-the-clock in all sensitive areas of the city.

Senior Superintendent of Police Muni Raj said more than 350 people have been booked in 12 separate cases filed in three different police stations, including Kotwali, Delhi Gate and Civil Lines.

They have been booked under different sections of the IPC, including Section 307 (attempt to murder) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion).

Among those booked is a prominent BJP leader of the city, Vinay Varshney, who has been named in an attempt to murder case filed by the family of Mohammad Tariq.

He received gunshot injuries and was admitted to an intensive care unit of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital.

On Tuesday, AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor visited the JNMC Hospital where a number of patients injured in the Sunday violence are undergoing treatment.

AMU spokesman Omar Peerzada said the V-C met the family members of those injured in the violence and assured them that patients would get best possible treatment at JNMC hospital.

Lucknow Police Commissioner Sujeet Pandey said the additional force has been deployed in Ghantaghar area where women and others have been staging a protest against the CAA for the past one month.

"Though there is no report of people from other parts of the state reaching the state capital, a high alert has been sounded as a precautionary measure," Pandey said.

"We are in contact with intelligence agencies and policemen in plain clothes have been deployed in the sensitive areas," the commissioner said, adding that strict vigil was being maintained.