By IANS
Lucknow : One student was killed in police firing in former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s village and several people were injured in clashes that broke out in the state Wednesday following an alleged attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader’s son and brother the day before.
While one person died as police opened fire on students in village Saifai, several students were injured in similar crackdowns in Etawah, Mainpuri and also in Lucknow, reports said.
Authorities admitted the death of a student in the firing but refused to take responsibility for the killing.
“We have to look at the picture in totality, so I am not in a position to tell you right away as to who was responsible for the student’s death,” Principal Home Secretary J.N. Chamber told IANS here.
The statewide protests were provoked after Mulayam Singh’s son and MP Akhilesh Yadav and brother Shivpal Yadav, the most powerful minister in the previous Samajwadi Party regime, were allegedly attacked here Tuesday.
It had started Tuesday afternoon when a crowd of the Samajwadi Chatra Dal, the student wing of the Samajwadi Party, tried to give a memorandum to two ministers of the Uttar Pradesh government.
When the police prevented the workers from giving the memorandum — asking for restoration of elections in degree colleges of the state — to the ministers, the mob reportedly turned unruly.
“Police had to intervene as the mob started breaking flower pots and damaging property. We arrested 19 men, including some ex-student leaders,” Inspector General of Police Arvind Kumar Jain told IANS.
Later in the evening, Samajwadi Party workers led by Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav protested outside the office of the senior superintendent of police.
“Since they had blocked traffic, we detained Shivpal, Akhilesh, Ahmed Hasan, Arvind Singh Gope (both former ministers in Yadav’s cabinet) and 93 others… They were taken to the Police Lines and released early Wednesday morning,” Jain said.
The leaders were also injured in the scuffle with the police.