Meerut (UP):

A police inspector and a youth were killed on Monday as a rampaging mob protesting against alleged cow slaughter in the area torched a police post in west Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district and clashed with cops.

District magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha said the station officer of Syana, where the clashes took place, was killed in the violence. The officer, Subodh Kumar Singh, was shot in the head, Jha said.

The protesters also set several vehicles on fire and pelted stones at policemen, which led cops to open fire, resulting in the death of an agitator, identified as Sumit, 18, of gunshot wounds.

The area remains tense following the violence that continued for nearly three hours.

The Uttar Pradesh government has deployed additional police, including over 1,000 personnel of anti-riot forces, and ordered multiple probes, including one by a special investigation team led by additional director general of police (intelligence), another by ADG (technical) and a magisterial inquiry.

According to sources, trouble started with locals from Mahav village finding carcasses of cows in a nearby forest. Led by members of Hindu outfits, agitators loaded the carcasses on a tractor and placed these near the Chingrawati police outpost on Syana-Garh highway near Bulandshahr city, approximately 150km from New Delhi.

“This morning, carcasses of cows were found dumped in a forest area outside the village. Activists of right-wing organisations soon gathered at the spot and alleged that people of a particular community were indulging in cow slaughter,” ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar said.

Angry villagers and members of various Hindu groups raised slogans against the police administration and blocked the Bulandshahr-Garh state highway.

Expressing grief over the incident, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is away campaigning in Rajasthan, said strict action would be taken against the guilty after the investigation reports are received. He also said financial assistance would be extended to victims of the violence.