by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The local government in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Friday put up hoardings featuring photographs and addresses of some people, which it says were accused of resorting to violence during protests against the controversial citizenship law.
The hoardings have come up at the prominent intersections in Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.
The people named and featuring on the hoardings have been asked to pay compensation for damage to public property in Lucknow during the violence that broke in the city over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December last year.
The directive put out on hoardings said if the accused fail to pay up immediately, their properties would be attached. Many of the accused named on the hoardings are out on bail and include activist-politician Sadaf Jafar, lawyer Mohammed Shoaib, theater personality Deepak Kabir and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer S R Darapuri.
"We are fully cooperating with the police and have got the bail from the court," Jafar told the media. "I have not run away and I am very much in the city. I don't understand why they have put out our names and photographs on the hoardings."
Jaffar said the government action was "uncalled" for and they would contest it in the courts of law.
The hoardings it seems have been put up by the order of local authorities and Lucknow police. However, the officials are tight-lipped over the matter.
While granting the bail to many accused in Uttar Pradesh, the courts have said that the police failed to back up their claims about the accused with enough evidence to deny them bail.
In February, the Allahabad high court stayed a property attachment notice given by the government to a man in Kanpur for his alleged role in the destruction of government property. The high court provided interim protection to the accused, saying that the Supreme Court was already looking into the validity of such notices in a separate case.
"I sent a letter via the jail superintendent asking how I could plead my case before a concerned officer when I was in jail. I got no reply. No one listened to me and then they sent me a recovery order," Deepak Kabir in a video put out on social media said.
Massive violence broke out in Uttar Pradesh against the CAA, wherein over 20 people were killed and many injured. The local government headed by Yogi Adityanath arrested thousands of people and brought serious charges like rioting and attempted murder against them in the violence-hit areas.
No sooner the violence erupted Adityanath warned that his government will take revenge on those involved in damaging public assets by auctioning their properties to compensate for the loss. At some places, shops of the accused were sealed and people made to pay for the damages.
The CAA aims at granting citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to six religions - Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Parsi and Christianity - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, it has kept out Muslim immigrants from applying for citizenship.
Protests against the CAA triggered on Dec. 11 last year, the day India's upper house of parliament passed the law. Since then there has been no let-up in the protests.
So far, the violence against the law has killed over 80 people across India.
Last week the communal violence broke out between pro- and anti-CAA groups in the northeastern part of India's capital city Delhi. Over 50 people were killed and more than 300 injured in the violence.
The violence left a trail of damage in the northeastern parts of the city as rioters torched vehicles, vandalised shops and burnt buildings including schools.
Many people, especially Muslims, have their homes in the affected areas and took refuge in the shelters set up by government and relief workers.
The Delhi Police came under fierce criticism for its apparent inaction during the violence. Locals alleged their calls to police for help proved futile.
