Mathura clashes: Under fire Akhilesh, shifts blame on ‘unprepared’ cops

Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh), June 3 : With the Samajwadi Party coming under fire in wake of the violent clashes in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said that the police should have been ‘more prepared’ before trying to evict the agitators, who had encroached on the land.”It is quite unfortunate that such an incident happened in Mathura. The police had gone there to warn the people and the incident happened while they were doing the recce. They did not know how much arms and ammunition the locals had with them at the time. 19 people have died so far, including two police officers,” Akhilesh told the media here.Stating that the Allahabad High Court had given them orders to remove the people, who had encroached on the land, he added that the state government had tried to speak to them and had also warned them of dire consequences but the locals still chose violence.The Chief Minister also ruled out a CBI probe into the matter, saying that it would be conducted only at the Commissioner-level and action will be taken against the guilty following the investigation.”The people there were squatting on the government’s property. The police should have gone ahead with full preparation, as they clearly did not know about the cache of ammunition that the locals had with them at the time,” Akhilesh said.