A petty dispute between kanwariyas going to Lodheshwar Mahadev temple at Ramnagar in Barabanki took a violent turn on Friday when one of the groups attacked the others with sharp-edged weapons, killing one devotee of Lord Shiva and critically injuring three others.
The incident took place in Masauli area of Barabanki on the Lucknow-Gonda highway. Senior police officers, including Barabanki district police chief, rushed to the spot on getting information about the clash and shifted the injured to district hospital from where two were referred to the King George's Medical University Trauma Centre in Lucknow.
A heavy police force has been deployed to avert any fresh clash.
Some youths, including the main accused, have been detained and a case has been registered by the police in this connection.
Reports said that two groups, each consisting of 20 youths, all hailing from Ghuswaha hamlet of Hardoi, were going for jalabhishek of Lord Shiva at Lodheshwar Mahadev temple in Ramnagar area of Barabanki.
Over a lakh devotees of Lord Shiva walk to Lodheshwar Mahadev temple from distant places every year to offer prayers and 'jalabhishek' on Mahashivratri.
Reports said that as the devotees were walking to Lodheshwar Mahadev temple, Amit Rawat of one of the groups started coming in front of Vipin Yadav (22), Rakesh Verma (20) and Vivek Mishra (23) to create disturbance for them. Irked by Amit's behaviour, the three warned him against creating disturbance again.
When they were crossing Masauli, Amit again created disturbance by coming in front of the trio. This irked them and they pushed Amit into a pit at the roadside. This agitated Amit and he started abusing the three kanwariyas but the dispute was resolved by the group leader identified as `Guru'.
However, after walking barely a few metres, Amit took out a knife and attacked Vipin, Rakesh and Vivek, critically injuring all the three. The other kanwariyas nabbed Amit, he injured two more.
By then the local police reached the spot and the cops rushed the victims to district hospital where Vipin was pronounced dead.