Home Ministry says there will be no discrimination against Muslims

An eight-year-old boy died in Varanasi on Friday after a lathi-charge by police led to a stampede. Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP), OP Singh, said at least 50 policemen were also injured across the state in “heavy” stone pelting by protesters returning from Friday prayers at mosques.

Tension simmered in several cities—Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Deoband (Saharanpur), Muzaffarnagar, Hapur, Shamli, Prayagraj, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Firozabad and Varanasi—as thousands defied pleas by authorities to exercise restraint a day after large-scale violence was reported across the state.

Situation was tense in Kanpur, where rioters exchanged gunfire and fought pitched battles with the police in the Yateem Khana and Talaq Mahal neighbourhoods after a day of calm

ON THE EDGE Some protests reported in three western districts; uneasy calm prevails in Kanpur

The state-wide death toll of the protestors now stands at 17 — two were killed in alleged police firing in Babupurwa area of Kanpur on Friday. A protester was killed in gunfire in Rampur, which saw protests break out on Saturday.