Aligarh, Sep 20: Two alleged criminals were shot dead by the Uttar Pradesh police this morning in an encounter, which was recorded by journalists. Before the operations in Aligarh, the UP police reportedly invited journalists to film the encounter. A video of the gun-battle shows armed police officers taking aim and firing. The deceased were identified as Mustakim and Naushad.

According to the police, Mustakim and Naushad were accused in at least six murders including the killings of Hindu priests. The duo fired at cops who were trying to stop them and hid in an abandoned government office building. They continued shooting from the building, forcing cops to resort to retaliatory fire. In the police firing, they were shot and declared dead in a hospital, the police claimed.

"Two men on a bike passed a police team, and when we tried to stop them, they fired at us. We gave chase, and they went and hid in an abandoned government office building about four kilometres away. They were firing at us from there too. We got reinforcements. When we fired, both of these people got hit, and they were declared dead in hospital. One of our officers was also wounded," Aligarh police chief Ajay Sahni told NDTV.

Journalists seen filming encounter in Aligarh:

As many as 65 people have been killed in counters in Uttar Pradesh since Yogi Adityanath took over as the chief minsiter in March 2017, according to the state police. Over 1000 encounters were reported during one and a half year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 20, 2018 02:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).