CAA: UP Police release photos, videos of protesters firing at cops

In one of the videos, a masked man wearing a blue jacket could be seen walking around with a gun in his hand.

Police said that since they faced this kind of violent acts from Dec 19 to 21, they retaliated as a result.

During these protests, a total of 15 people died in Uttar Pradesh and Meerut alone recorded six deaths.

Even as several reports suggest that many protesters received bullet injuries, the police claimed that they used nothing other than plastic pellets and rubber bullets.

In UP's Bijnor,  two people were killed recently in police firing during the anti-CAA agitation.

Bijnor was one of the hotbeds of violent CAA protests where agitators, reportedly, hurled brickbats and stones at the policemen and also torched some vehicles. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma claimed that the police also suffered heavy losses and many cops were injured.

"As many as 288 policemen were injured in violence that erupted across 21 districts. Sixty-two of them suffered firearm injuries," he said during a press conference held recently.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a very strong message said protesters should also keep in mind the need to maintain roads and other facilities like clean sewerage systems.

"Everyone who has protested violently and has vandalized property in recent times must ask himself, was this the right way?" Modi said while addressing at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow.

"I request and tell these protesters that if good roads, facilities, and a clean sewerage system is a citizen's right, maintaining them correctly is their responsibility as well," he said.

Uttar Pradesh, like many other parts of India, recently witnessed massive protests over the new citizenship law passed by the Indian government.