Clashes over a contentious citizenship law roiled India’s capital for a second day Tuesday — coinciding with a visit by US President Donald Trump — as the death toll rose to at least nine.
There have been widespread protests since the law that critics say is anti-Muslim was passed in mid-December, with more than 25 people killed.
“There have been nine confirmed deaths,” Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital official Rajesh Kalra told AFP.
He said 31 people, including 10 who were seriously hurt, were brought to the New Delhi hospital on Tuesday.
Senior policeman Alok Kumar told AFP that officers were still receiving reports of violence.
“The protesters are attacking police wherever they are present and clashing among each other where the police aren’t there,” Kumar added.
One of those killed Monday was a policeman, a senior officer told AFP.
More rioting was reported Tuesday, with a large plume of black smoke rising in the sky.
Broadcaster NDTV said three of its reporters and a cameraman were attacked by a mob on the northeastern fringe of the megacity of 20 million people.
“There is hardly any police presence in the area. Rioters are running around threatening people, vandalising shops,” a resident of the poor, migrant neighbourhood of Maujpur told the Press Trust of India.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited a hospital where the injured were being treated, called for calm.
National Home Minister Amit Shah, whose ministry controls law and order in the capital region, met with senior Delhi government officials and promised to deploy more police if they were needed, Kejriwal said.
AFP
