New Delhi: A day after Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad and his associate Ghulam, wanted for their alleged involvement in the murder of Umesh Pal, were gunned down, Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday said they have killed 183 alleged criminals in encounters in the six years of Yogi Adityanath's government. According to police data, over 10,900 police encounters have taken place in the state since March 2017.
"As many as 183 criminals have been gunned down in police encounters in the state since March 20, 2017," Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told news agency PTI.
In these encounters, 23,300 alleged criminals were arrested and 5,046 were injured, and as many as 1,443 police personnel were injured and 13 were killed.
Meanwhile, Opposition parities have alleged that many of these encounters were "fake" and demanded a high-level probe into them.
"By doing fake encounters, the BJP government is trying to divert attention from real issues. The BJP does not believe in courts at all. Today's and other recent encounters should be thoroughly investigated and the culprits should not be spared. The government does not have the right to decide what is right or wrong. The BJP is against brotherhood," Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, referring to Atiq Ahmed’s son’s encounter.
BSP supremo Mayawati, too, demanded a "high-level" probe to bring out "complete facts and truth" of the incident as "many types of discussions" were happening. She also linked the encounter to gangster Vikas Dubey’s killing.
Notably, some activists have also raised questions over the high number of police encounters in Uttar Pradesh.
"We are of the view that the National Human Rights Commission has some guidelines on police encounters. And there should be a magisterial probe as per the guidelines of the NHRC. It will make the picture clear," Lenin Raghuvanshi, the founder-convenor of People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, told PTI.