Paramilitary forces, drones keep vigil in Uttar Pradesh for Friday prayers
Lucknow: Security was mounted and patrolling intensified in sensitive areas across Uttar Pradesh to ensure peace during Friday prayers in view of widespread violence by those protesting against the amended Citizenship Act which has so far claimed 19 lives.
3,500 personnel of central paramilitary forces and 12,000 jawans of the UP provincial armed constabulary (PAC) are on the job to maintain peace, UP DGP OP Singh said.
As a precautionary measure, Internet services that were resumed after nearly a week, were suspended again in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
In Agra, the services will remain suspended till Friday evening, a senior police official said. Internet services will be suspended in 21 of the 75 districts, the DGP said.
To avoid a repeat of last Friday's violence in Gorakhpur, police staged flag march in sensitive areas and held a meeting with peace committees in all circle and police station areas.
Paramilitary force personnel and state police force have been deployed, and drone cameras are being used to ensure security on Friday, Gorakhpur District Magistrate Vijyendra Pandiyan said.
Meanwhile, the process to confiscate the property of those involved in damaging public assets during the protests gained momentum as 372 people were served notices in different districts.
A Home Department spokesperson on Thursday put the death toll at 19 in the violence, which left 288 policemen injured, including 61 who received firearm injury. He said 327 FIRs have been registered and 5,558 preventive arrests made.
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Five railway staffers injured as van headed to Rajdhani Express fire site overturns in MP
Ratlam (MP) (PTI): Five railway staffers were injured, one of them critically, when their van carrying repair equipment to the site of a Rajdhani Express fire overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam district on Sunday, officials said.
The blaze erupted in an AC coach of the Delhi-bound Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express between Vikramgarh Alot and Lunirichha stations under the Kota division of the railways in Ratlam at 5.15 am.
It disrupted the movement of several trains on the Mumbai-Delhi route, as per the officials.
A van carrying necessary equipment to Alot overturned on the way when a cow suddenly strayed into the middle of the road, they said.
ALSO READ: Fire breaks out in coach of Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in MP's Ratlam; no casualties
Five railwaymen were injured, one of them critically, the officials said.
The incident took place when the van carrying essential equipment for overhead electric line repair, among other things, was on its way to Alot from Shyamnagar in Ratlam, West Central Railway's chief public relations officer Harshit Shrivastava told PTI.
The injured persons were rushed to the hospital and were subsequently referred to Kota in Rajasthan, officials said.
No casualties were reported in the train fire.
