Amid tight security arrangements, with drones keeping an eye from the sky, the Friday prayers passed off peacefully in Uttar Pradesh with no untoward incident reported from anywhere after last week’s anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests that left 19 dead.
“The entire State was peaceful,” Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police OP Singh told reporters in Lucknow.
The State was placed under a thick security cover with deployment of central paramilitary forces in sensitive areas.
As a precautionary measure, Internet services which were resumed after nearly a week, were suspended again in over 20 of the 75 UP districts, including Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Agra to check rumour-mongering, officials said.
Drones were also used to keep a vigil, particularly in areas where violence had broken out last week after Friday prayers. Protesters had hurled stones at policemen and set vehicles on fire. Reports from Moradabad, Amroha and Hathras districts said the juma namaz was offered at various mosques and the congregations dispersed peacefully.
In Lucknow, a heavy deployment of paramilitary force personnel was seen outside the historic Tiley Wali Masjid in the Old City area.
In Ajmer, a large number of Muslims, including khadims of the Ajmer dargah, took out a protest march and burnt an effigy of Deewan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the spiritual head of the dargah, accusing him of misleading Muslims on the issue of the amended Citizenship Act.