• Clashes in northern India due to clashes between Police and sect members killed 24 people
• 2 police officers were killed while trying to expel 3000 followers
• The occupants were demanding lower gas prices and the "cancellation" of the election of various members of government

At least 24 people were killed in clashes in Mathura, a city in northern India on Thursday June 2, when police tried to evacuate a park illegally inhabited by thousands of sect members.

Two police officers were among those killed while attempting to expel around 3,000 followers of a semi-religious sect who had been illegally occupying the patch of land in the city of Mathura for two years.

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Hundreds of members of the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah group were arrested during the evacuation, which began after authorities won a court order to remove tents and makeshift wooden structures set up by the land occupiers.

The squatters responded to the evacuation with gunfire, some of them shooting from treetops. Hand grenades were also thrown, according to local media.

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"The culprits will not be spared at any cost. The police had gone there to vacate land following court orders," said Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The occupants were reportedly demanding lower gas prices and the "cancellation" of the election of various members of government. On social media, group members describe themselves as political revolutionaries inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose, an independence leader who went missing in a military operation in 1945.

-prepared by Saurabh Bodas (inputs from VOA), an intern at NewsGram. Twitter: @saurabhbodas96

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