Agra: As many as 21 people, including two senior policemen were killed after clashes broke out between the cops and around 3000 encroaches at park in Mathura which is 50 kilometres north of Agra. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has ordered a probe into the incident.
Superintendent of Police (City) Mukul Dwivedi and Farha Station House Officer (SHO) Santosh Kumar Yadav were killed in firing by the encroachers. Five other policemen were seriously injured.
The clashes broke out when the police went to evict the encroaches who had occupied the 260-acre park at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura, for over two years. The police failed to eject the people despite of having an order from the court.
Chief of Uttar Pradesh police, Javed Ahmed said, the encroachers – members of a semi-religious sect who called themselves “Satyagrahis” – threw stones and the police team and also opened fire at them. “There was unprovoked firing from the members of an offshoot of the Jai Gurudev sect. Heavily armed men from the other side fired at the police,” he said and added that to control the crowd, the police resorted to lathicharge and tear gas shells and finally opened fire.
Sources in the police say a gas cylinder explosions and a fire during the clashes could have caused the civilian deaths. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 20 lakh to the family of the deceased policemen.
