The Uttar Pradesh government has begun seizing property belonging to families of those it labels “rioters,” a directive that followed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s 28 December press conference. Adityanath, a hardline Hindu monk from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, told reporters that “revenge will be taken.” Since then, authorities have moved to confiscate assets in districts where protests turned deadly, though exact numbers of properties seized have not been released. The state has also imposed near-total internet blackouts in Aligarh, Meerut and Sambhal, citing the need to stop rumour-mongering.
The death toll stands at 25, according to state medical examiners and federal home ministry figures released 3 January 2020. Sixteen of those deaths occurred in Uttar Pradesh alone. Hospital records from the worst single incident, on 20 December in Lucknow, list nine dead from bullet wounds. Among them was 24-year-old carpet weaver Mohammed Wakil. Witnesses say he was shot while trying to carry an injured child to safety. “He had no weapon, only a schoolbag,” his brother Muzaffar told local reporters outside the mortuary. “Police aimed at his chest and walked away.”
The protests began in Assam on 11 December 2019, after parliament approved the Citizenship Amendment Act. The law offers fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India before 31 December 2014. Demonstrations spread to Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and a dozen other states. Police accounts in Uttar Pradesh blame “cross-fire” and “armed infiltrators” for the fatalities. Post-mortem sheets reviewed by Reuters show every fatality suffered wounds to the upper torso.
More than 260 police officers were injured during the first fortnight of protests nationwide. The federal home ministry figures, released alongside the death counts, do not break down how many of those injuries occurred in Uttar Pradesh versus other states. But the northern state remains the epicenter of violence. Chief Minister Adityanath had banned gatherings of more than four people across Uttar Pradesh. Rallies defied the curfew, and police opened fire.
What happens next is unclear. The law is now on the books. Protests have not stopped. The property seizures signal a hardening state response. Internet blackouts cut communication in three major cities — Aligarh, Meerut and Sambhal — preventing video of confrontations from spreading. The central government has not commented on the state’s actions. Opposition parties have called for Adityanath’s removal. No such move has come.
The dead include a carpet weaver, a man carrying a child. Their names are in hospital records. Their families wait outside mortuaries. The state says revenge will be taken. The post-mortem sheets say shots to the chest. The internet is off in three cities. The protests continue.
