Overview

• Clashes erupted after Friday prayers when a planned demonstration was called off, with stone-pelting reported, police using lathi-charge, gunfire heard in videos, and injuries to police claimed by officials.
• Police said 10 cases have been filed across multiple stations naming 180 people and listing about 2,500 unidentified suspects, with house-to-house raids continuing to identify more from CCTV and social media footage.
• Tauqeer Raza Khan and seven others were arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody, taking total arrests to 39, and authorities ordered a 48-hour internet shutdown across Bareilly.
• Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vowed zero tolerance and senior officers said evidence points to advance planning, as the administration invokes a conspiracy motive tied to efforts to disrupt public order during the festive period.
• Section 163 of the BNSS requiring written permission for marches was in force; Raza contested the police narrative in a video and a civil society group warned against criminalising devotional expression as the row that began with a Kanpur FIR spread to other states.