Uttar Pradesh Police has made 368 arrests in connection with the violence in Mathura even as the four main accused in the clashes between Police and members of a sect are absconding.
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Mr Ahmed added that some of the protesters had died from bullet and other injuries sustained during the clash, but at least 11 were killed in a blaze caused by cooking gas cylinders.
A probe into the violence in Jawahar Bag here, in which 24 people were killed, begins today with the spot visit by the Commissioner of Aligarh.
“Or were the people who were bringing this ammunition released after taking bribe at each of these check posts”, Patra said. He said, “The mistake was that the police went without full preparation”. While minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju pointed to a “lapse”, his party colleague and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “What happened in Mathura is a living example of the image of goondaraj in Uttar Pradesh that the Samajwadi Party has built over the years”.
Members of a sect said to have been living illegally after they were evicted from the Jawahar Bagh park in Mathura on June 2, 2016.
Akhilesh Yadav also announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 20 lakh each for the families of the two police officers killed in the violence.
“We knew they had firearms, but we didn’t expect them to fire at us the way they did”, state police Chief Javed Ahmed said.
At least 21 people, including two cops, were killed in violent clashes between the police and illegal occupants of a land in Mathura’s Jawahar Bagh area Thursday night.
The occupiers were reportedly members of a sect known as Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah and had been occupying the area since late 2014. The BJP national secretary Srikant Sharma on Friday had said that one of the top six functionaries of SP government had provided patronage to encroachers.
“We are trying to identify the bodies and it is possible some of them may be the wanted leaders”.
“It was the first time I witnessed a medical emergency of this magnitude”, Yogendra Bhadauria, who led the fleet of ambulances involved in the rescue operation, told AFP. “Combing operations are underway and the area is being examined by police teams and experts”, an official said.
The “activists” pelted stones and opened fire at the police force killing both the SHO and the SP.
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Meanwhile, Mathura MP Hema Malini expressed shock and anguish over the incident and asked why the UP police “did not” take action in the matter during the last two years.
