The government of Uttar Pradesh declared on Thursday the 14th of the laws against citizenship and the National Registry of Citizens as fugitives and announced cash rewards for their arrest.
Eight of these protesters were declared wanted under the Gangster Act and notices were posted outside their homes.
The defendants were charged with arson, dissemination of community discord and damage to public property during the protest against the CAA, NRC in Lucknow which turned violent. Among the accused was the Shiite cleric Maulana Saif Abbas.
The administration also posted photographs of the accused in many places in the old city area and near Imambara.
More than 40 people, including social workers and a retired IPS officer, were arrested following violent protests in Lucknow in December last year in which one person was killed.
The new citizenship law amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 so that people of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, and Parsi religions who entered India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are eligible for citizenship.
In Assam, many groups feel that the amended citizenship law will nullify the Assam Agreement of 1985, which set March 24, 1971 as the deadline for the deportation of all illegal immigrants regardless of religion. Activists say the NRC process was directed against all illegal immigrants and the citizenship law will selectively benefit non-Muslim immigrants in Assam.
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