WEB DESK
In a rare incident of an encounter between police and criminals, Uttar Pradesh police Thursday shot dead two criminals, in full glare of media.
According to police the dead were accused of murdering six persons including two Hindu priests, in Aligarh district.
Local journalists and television crew were formally invited as the policemen, wearing bulletproof vests, were seen aiming their guns at the criminals, later identified as Naushad and Mustakeem, who were hiding in an abandoned building.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Aligarh, Ajay Sahni, said the criminals were passing through a police checkpoint on a bike and when they were asked to stop. The criminals however tried to escape. Policemen chased them for about five kilometres.
Video footage from the encounter site telecast by TV shows policemen armed with guns taking aim and firing.
The police claim they had been looking for the two men — Mustakim and Naushad — for some days.
“This happened around 6:30 in the morning. Two men on a bike passed a police team and when we tried to stop them, they fired at us. We gave chase and they went and hid in an abandoned government office building about four kilometres away. They were firing at us from there too. We got reinforcements. When we fired, both of these people got hit and they were declared dead in hospital. One of our officers was also wounded,” said Ajay Sahni, Aligarh’s police chief.
Yesterday, five other people — all Muslims — had been arrested for the six murders over the last month.
Recently, Uttar Pradesh police chief OP Singh had said police encounters were part of a well chalked out “strategy” to arrest hardened criminals.