2 Cops including 21 Killed in India Clashes

At least 21 people, including two policemen, were killed in clashes between police and around 3,000 encroachers at a park of Mathura in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

The two policemen killed in the clashes were Mathura City Superintendent of Police (City) Mukul Dwivedi and Station House Officer of Farah police station Santosh Kumar who was shot in the head.

The encroachers, members of a semi-religious sect, had occupied a 260-acre park at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura, nearly 150 kilometres from Delhi, for more than two years.

The police had failed to evict them earlier despite an order from a court, the NDTV reported.

The clashes had broken out yesterday when a police team went to the park to evict the encroachers.

According to Uttar Pradesh police chief Javed Ahmed, the encroachers threw stones at 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.

According to District magistrate Rajesh Kumar, the encroachers used hand grenades and opened fire from automatic weapons after taking position at tree tops.

He also said several huts in the park caught fire.

Sources in the police say a gas cylinder explosions and a fire during the clashes could have caused the civilian deaths.

The encroachers had occupied the land two years ago on the pretext of ‘dharna’ demanding ‘cancellation’ of election of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ currency and sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one rupee and petrol at the rate of 40 litres for one rupee.

The Allahabad high court had, acting on a public interest litigation petition, recently directed the authorities to vacate the land.