By Scroll Staff
Over two weeks after at least four persons died in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal during protests against a survey of a mosque, the district’s superintendent of police said that the police had at the time “fired warning shots in the air”, The Indian Express reported.
On November 24, violence broke out in Sambhal after a group of Muslims objected to a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town. A day later, Superintendent of Police Krishan Kumar Bishnoi had claimed that while an autopsy of three of those who died showed that they had suffered gunshot wounds from a .315 bore firearm, the police had only used pellet guns.
On Saturday, however, Bishnoi told The Indian Express that the police had on November 24 fired in the air to force the crowd to disperse.
In response to a question about videos showing police personnel firing during the protest, the superintendent of police said: “A police person can be seen firing in the air. We are investigating who fired two shots.”
The parents of a man named Naeem, one of those who died during the violence on that day, had claimed that he was killed police firing. However, Moradabad Divisional Commissioner Aunjaneya Kumar Singh denied the allegation.
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