MEERUT, India: Zaheer Ahmed had just returned home from work in northern India last Friday afternoon and stepped out for a smoke before lunch.
Minutes later, he was dead, shot in the head.
His death, and the killing by gunfire of four other Muslim men the same afternoon in the mainly Muslim neighbourhood, made it the most intense burst of violence in two weeks of protests.
India has been convulsed by the broadest unrest in at least seven years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government brought in a law that many see as discriminatory against Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of the population.
All of the families of the five dead men say they were shot and killed by police as a protest flared against the new law. Reuters could not independently verify those accounts, and none of the more than 20 individuals Reuters interviewed saw police open fire.
Police say they used baton charges and teargas, and opened fire to control the crowd but did not kill anyone.
Police add that the men must have been killed by violent armed protesters whose shots went astray. An investigation into the violence is under way.
In the aftermath, distrust and anger between the Muslim community in the area where the deaths happened and security forces has deepened, as protests to the law enter their third week.
The clashes on Dec 20 erupted around Lisari Gate after Friday afternoon’s Muslim prayers.
Residents say police broke several CCTV cameras in the area before the violence began.
Reuters was unable to independently verify those accounts, but did review CCTV footage from two cameras on shops in the area. In both cases, the footage ends abruptly after a policeman waving a baton is seen trying to hit the cameras.
Akhilesh Singh, the police superintendent of the Meerut City zone, said police had not destroyed any cameras and that all of the victims were involved in what he called rioting.
“Obviously they must be in the midst of the violence. That’s why they must have been killed,” Singh told Reuters.
Police have cracked down on the demonstrations that have spread across India, but Uttar Pradesh state, where Meerut is located, has seen the worst violence. At least 19 of 25 deaths have taken place there.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with roughly 200 million people, is ruled by a Hindu priest and has a history of deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a televised statement last week that he would take “revenge” against those behind the violence and make them pay for the public damage.
Thousands of people have taken to streets across India to demand the government rescind the Citizenship Amendment Act enacted by parliament on Dec 11.
It gives minorities who migrated from three neighbouring countries a path to citizenship, except for Muslims. Critics say it is an attack on India’s secular foundations. - REUTERS