The members of the cult in Mathura had set off has cylinder explosions when they clashed with the police. (PTI photo)
As the police investigate
the violent clash with "encroachers" at the Jawahar Park in Mathura, the difficult task of identifying those who died in the incident continues on the sidelines.
Besides the two policemen who died in the line of duty on Thursday evening,
22 of those killed were from the cult that calls itself the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah.
Their bodies have been kept in two post mortem centres in the city. 48 hours have lapsed and the police faces a major impasse - not even a single person has approached the police to take away the bodies of any of the dead.
"It's a tricky situation. It's not an ordinary death. The rioters fired at and attacked the police in which two officers died and 22 are seriously injured. People are bound to be afraid of approaching the police," a senior police official said.
By law, the police is required to keep bodies of deceased in the mortuary for identification for at least 72 hours.
Meanwhile the bigger problem for the police is to answer what happened to the leader of the cult Ram Briksh Yadav. Police officers say it's not certain if he is alive or dead.
Police has begun a preliminary exercise to carry out an identification process using recent pictures of Yadav.
"Till we have impeccable evidence that one of the dead is Ram Briksh Yadav, we cannot make any announcement. Facts have to be corroborated thoroughly," a senior official said.
Making the police's job difficult is the fact that 11 of the 22 bodies are charred due to the the blaze started deliberately by the members of the cult.
The rioters set on fire hundreds of illegally procured and stored cooking gas cylinders inside the camp. The explosion and fire killed and injured many.