Two persons including one said to be an eyewitness in a murder case were killed when shots were fired and swords were used in a fight between two rival groups during a Nagar Kirtan procession taken out in Sitarganj on Sunday.
The district police have deployed additional forces in the area to avoid escalation of the situation while family members of the murder victims were reportedly stating that they would not allow post mortem of the bodies until the accused killers are caught by the police. The Udham Singh Nagar district senior superintendent of police and the superintendent of police (crime) Kamlesh Upadhyay had reached the scene of crime after the incident.
According to sources, a Nagar Kirtan procession was being taken out in the town on Sunday when on the Kichha Road some people opened fire without warning.
Daljit Singh, a resident of Janata Farm area was fatally hit by a bullet while Harvansh Singh, a resident of Bijti, who was participating in the procession, was fatally injured by an assailant using a sword. It is being stated that Daljit Singh was also an eyewitness to the murder of Jaimal Singh which was committed about two years ago.
Three people were also injured in the altercation. They were taken to the community health centre from where one of them was referred to a higher centre. Though police personnel were also present during the Nagar Kirtan, the sudden firing caught all unaware even as the shots spread panic and created a stampede like situation at the Nagar Kirtan. If sources are to be believed, the killings were a result of an old animosity between residents of Janata Farm and Dada Farm.
Due to this animosity, a person from Janata Farm had been murdered in the past. The attack on Sunday is believed to have been carried out in the old dispute. After it was reported that the alleged assailants who had sustained injury in the altercation had been taken to the community health centre, the kinfolk of the victims gheraoed the community health centre demanding that the accused be brought out.
While the police kept the injured accused assailants inside the community health centre room, those demanding their arrest jostled with the police at the gates of the health centre in their attempt to push through.
The family members of the victim maintained that they would not allow post mortem of the body until the accused assailants are arrested by the police.
Meanwhile, the SSP along with other officers reached the site after the incident.
The community health centre is under heavy police guard while forces from other police stations have also been brought to Sitarganj to maintain law and order in the town where the situation was reported to be tense after the deaths.