One person was killed and several injured when police opened fire on Wednesday on Samajwadi Party activists who fought pitched street battles with the men in uniform at Saifai in Etawah protesting alleged manhandling of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's son and brother.
As the street battle erupted, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Mayawati traded charges with the SP chief accusing the police of targeting his party workers at her behest and the BSP supremo charging SP with fomenting trouble in league with criminals.
"One person was killed when police took necessary action to control the situation arising out of stone pelting by the goonda and criminal elements of Samajwadi Party," Mayawati told media persons in Lucknow.
Three students were hit by bullets when police opened fire to disperse the agitating group in Saifai, the home constituency of the Yadavs, and one of them later succumbed to his injuries.
SP activists held demonstrations across Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday protesting Tuesday night's incident in which party leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav were allegedly manhandled by police in the state capital.
Akhilesh, accompanied by his party colleagues, tried to force their way to the assembly for holding a dharna when they were stopped by police near the SP office on Wednesday morning.
Akhilesh and his other party colleagues were locked in a scuffle with policemen for several minutes and a free-for-all broke out before police fired tear gas shells and water canons to disperse them.