A minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government stoked a controversy on Thursday after he refused to meet the families of two men killed in violence during protests against the amended Citizenship Act in Bijnor last week. CAA protests LIVE updates Calling them "upadravi" (vandals), vocational education and skill development minister Kapil Dev Agarwal told PTI, "Why should I go to vandals' place? How can those who are involved in vandalism and put the entire country and state in arson be social." Agarwal, however, met Om Raj Saini, who was injured in the violence that hit the district's Nehtaur area and his family. When asked if his action did not amount to discrimination, the minister said, "Why should I visit those who want to put Nahtaur/Bijnor in flames? Why should I go to the homes of vandals? Listen to me. Those who are doing vandalism and want to inflame passions, how are they part of society. This is not about Hindu-Muslim. Why should I go to vandals?" In Bijnor, two people have been killed in the protests. One of them, identified as Mohammad Suleman, died after he was shot by the police in "self-defence". The family of Anas, 20, who also died in the violence, said he had stepped out to get milk for his seven-month-old son when the police shot him from more than hundred metres away. Suleman, who was in his final year of graduation and was preparing for UPSC exams at his maternal uncle Anwar Usmani’s place in Noida, had come to Nehtaur since he was down with high fever. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday met the families of those dead in the violence in Bijnor. As many as 26 persons, including 20 policemen, were injured in the violence that erupted last week. Fourteen of the 18 killed across the state succumbed to “firearm injuries”, senior police officers from eight districts confirmed to The Indian Express.
