Extraordinarily Armed Mathura Cult Being Investigated For Links To Naxals

Mathura: The police has nobody but itself to blame for its complete ambush last week in Mathura by extraordinarily armed members of an obscure cult, according to the Uttar Pradesh government.

24 people - including two senior police officers -were killed on Thursday evening after the cult used grenades, guns and swords to fight its eviction from Jawahar Bagh.

In a report to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the government of Akhilesh Yadav has said the police failed to assess the dangers of dealing with the cult, denied any political interference that left the police vulnerable to the attack, as alleged by opposition parties. The report said that links to Naxals are suspected because of the quantity and type of weapons used by the cult which called itself Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah.

In Thursday's clashes, which lasted nearly two hours, the head of the cult, Ram Vriksha Yadav, was killed in one of the many fires that erupted after his followers set alight gas cylinders to add to the chaos.

The Chief Minister's uncle, Shivpal Yadav, who is a minister, has been named by the BJP as a patron of the cult which moved into the 260-acre park in 2014 in part because the sect was led by members of his Yadav caste. Shivpal Yadav has denied any links to the cult, demanding that the BJP "either prove its allegations or apologize publicly".

What is clear is that a huge amount of arms and ammunition were collected on site by the cult without attracting any attention or inquiry, a lapse conceded by Javed Ahmed, the head of the Uttar Pradesh police force. Separately, the Chief Minister has said that "the police was not fully prepared."

The cult ran a secretive township complete with a pseudo-government, army, court and a prison where torture was the norm, senior police officers have said. The land that had been encroached was valuable not just because of its size but its location in the heart of town.