You've only two places to go, Pakistan or Kabristan

Lucknow: Haji Hamid Hasan, a 72-year-old timber trader in Muzaffarnagar town in western Uttar Pradesh, said nearly 30 policemen, some in plainclothes, broke into his two-storey house and went on the rampage.

Hasan said he was assaulted with a rifle butt when he protested and beaten with sticks. They vandalised the house, breaking washbasins, bathroom fittings, bed, furniture, fridge, washing machine and utensils, he added.

"I cried and begged for mercy but they were very brutal. They told me Muslims have only two places, Pakistan or Kabristan (cemetery),' he wailed while showing the scene of destruction inside his house and the injury on his leg.

The horror, he said, continued for 30 to 40 minutes.

"After destroying everything, they looted at gunpoint jewellery and cash of Rs 5 lakh kept in the almirah. I recently bought the jewellery for the weddings of my two grand-daughters," Hasan said.

Hasan said his wife Fatima had holed up in a room with their two granddaughters, Ruqaiya Parveen, a postgraduate in science, and Mubashira Parveen, a graduate. The intruders hurled abuses at the women, beat up Hasan's son Md Shahid and took him away, he said. Hasan said his only crime was that he and his son had participated in the protests after the Friday prayers.

More than 1,100 people are under arrest and 5,558 kept in preventive detention following violence related to the anti-citizenship amendment act protests in Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Thursday, putting the death toll in police clashes across the state at 19.

The 1,113 arrested include social activist and Congress worker Sadaf Jafar and noted theatre artist Deepak Kabir who are being kept in a Lucknow jail.

A journalist with The Hindu was also detained by the police but later released.

As many as 351 policemen were also injured in the anti-CAA protests, he said.

Blaming the Congress for spreading rumours in Delhi over the amended Citizenship Act, Home Minister Amit Shah held the rival party responsible for violence in the last few weeks as he said: "It's time to teach Delhi's tukde-tukde gang a lesson." He asked the people in the national capital - where elections are due early next year - to punish the Congress.