‘Introspect if what you did was right’: PM Modi to anti-CAA protesters in UP – india news

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday condemned the violence in Uttar Pradesh during the protests against citizenship amendment act (CAA), saying there was a need to “introspect”.

“People who damaged public property and were involved in violence in the name of protest in UP, should introspect if what they did was right,” PM Modi said in his address at the foundation laying ceremony of Atal Bihari Medical University in Lucknow.

“Issues of Article 370 and Ram Temple have been resolved peacefully. The way to give citizenship to refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan has been cleared. 130 crore Indians have found solution to such challenges with confidence,” he added.

Eighteen people have died across Uttar Pradesh in protests against the law which was passed by Parliament on December 11. The police also says that the protestors have damaged public property worth around Rs 100 crore in seven districts of the state during protests.

The Lucknow district magistrate has set up a committee to assess the damage to property during the protests on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s instructions. The committee has also been tasked with identifying the people involved, and levying fines on them. If they fail to pay, their property will be confiscated in keeping with a 2010 Allahabad High Court order.

Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police (DGP) O P Singh said the police has arrested 865 people and filed 135 cases in connection with the protests. Some of the protesters used country-made pistols to target the police and as many as 500 non-prohibited bore cartridges were recovered from the protest venues in Sambhal, Kanpur, Rampur, Lucknow, Aligarh, Firozabad, Muzzafarnagar and Meerut.