Police said in the rioting, Yadav’s hut caught fire due to a cylinder blast, killing all 11 people hiding inside, including the alleged mastermind.
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Asserting that the Mathura violence was a prime example of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government’s spectacular failure in Uttar Pradesh, Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan called for a thorough probe into the matter.
“Or were the people who were bringing this ammunition released after taking bribe at each of these check posts”, Patra said.
As reported, among the dead was a superintendent of police, Mathura SP Mukul Dwivedi and Farah station house officer Santosh Yadav.
Police have arrested over 300 people involved in the violence, said local TV reports. The dead included two police officers.
Ahmed said there was “unprovoked” firing by the encroachers who pelted stones and attacked the policemen with lathis as they arrived at the site for a recce to carry out the eviction, leading to the death of two police officials.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told IANS that while the incident was very unfortunate, it did not come as a shock as “in the past too, policemen have been targetted even as Chief Minister and his government have been in a state of denial”.
Yadav was the key accused in leading the violence and reportedly running a camp backed by a private army which had taken over Mathura’s Jawahar Bagh.
Much to the dismay of the locals, on the pretext of holding a protest, those two days turned into two years and the rallying group never moved out of the park that falls under the Horticultural Department of the Uttar Pradesh government.
“Subsequent searches by the police revealed that the activists of the group… had stored firearms and other weapons, including grenades”, he said. “Unabated violence is a stark reminder of the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh”, he tweeted.
The area was later sealed off with the situation described as tense but under control.
BJP was left red-faced when Mathura MP Hema Malini uploaded her photographs on Twitter during a movie shoot in Mumbai even as her party launched a scathing attack on the UP government.
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“We demand an inquiry into the case so that everything comes out in public”, he told Anadolu Agency. “We have identified four main boys who are behind this entire incident and absconding right now”, said Daljeet Singh, Additional Director General (law and order) of Uttar Pradesh Police.
