LUCKNOW, India At least 22 people were killed when police clashed with squatters in north India, officials said on Friday, the violence erupting after protesters killed two police officers during an operation to clear thousands of people from a public park.
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Meanwhile, senior officials of the UP government including Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan, Principal Secretary (Home) Devashish Panda and DGP Javeed Ahmed have rushed to the spot.
Superintendent of Police (City) Mukul Dwivedi and Farah Police Station SHO Santosh Yadav were among those killed when the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena (SBSS) activists opened fire at the police party that attempted to evict the Jawahar Park late last evening.
(Anant Ram/HTPhoto) A policeman is treated after being injured in clashes with activists, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, at a hospital in Mathura. Asserting that it was an unlawful assembly and that the locals had explosives including grenades and pistols which they used to fire upon the police, Chaudhary said that they fired at police which was absolutely unprovoked, adding that strict action will be taken.
“Criminals in UP are highly-motivated due to their protection by the ruling party and that is why there have been nearly 900 cases of police personnel being attacked by them under its rule”, he said and cited incidents in Tunda, Allahabad and Bareilly.
Singh has already spoken to Yadav and reviewed the situation in Mathura.
According to PTI, over two years ago, activists of a splinter group of the followers of Baba Jai Gurudeo had occupied hundreds of acres of land in Jawahar Bagh on the pretext of a “dharna”.
On September 30, 2015 the Allahabad High Court ordered their eviction.
Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Kunwar Narendra Singh and Kisan Sangharsh Samiti leader Ram Babu Katelia said they had given three days till May 31 to the district administration to get the land vacated.
The Chief Minister also announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 20 lakh each for the families of the two police officers.
“I am anguished over the loss of lives in the incident in Mathura”.
The standoff had been building for almost two years, during which thousands had occupied a 268-acre (108-hectare) patch of government land while demanding that officials build public facilities and provide heavily discount petrol prices, now at about $1 per liter (about $4 per gallon).
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Uttar Pradesh: In Mathura, Uttar Pradesh on Thursday around 14 people were died in a mob violence during an operation to clear the government land. It is answerable. I will ask the chief minister about it and they should have looked into the matter two years back.
