As Indian
protests against a new citizenship law have intensified, so has
police use of "lathis", sturdy sticks used to whack, thwack and quell dissent since
British colonial times -- to sometimes deadly effect.
At least 27 people have died in the past two weeks of protests, mostly from bullets, but hundreds more have been injured in clashes between demonstrators and riot police wielding the bamboo canes.
"From being used as means to regulate crowds, lathi has turned into a lethal weapon," said V. Suresh, the secretary general of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-profit rights group.