The Uttar Pradesh (UP) police over the past one month have killed at least four criminals in more than 30 instances of encounters while encountering heavy firing from criminals in the state, reports Indian Express.

This comes after no instance of an encounter killing being reported in the state in the last three months. However, just over the past four days, the police has been reported to have engaged in 15 encounters in which three wanted criminals have been killed. Two of criminals were killed in an encounter in Barabanki on Friday (28 June).

It should be noted that in total, 77 criminals have been killed and over 1,100 left injured in such police encounters since the Yogi Adityanath led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government took to the helm of affairs in the state in March 2017.

In March 2019, on the occasion of completion of two years of his government having been in power, Chief Minister Adityanath had said that more than 8,000 criminals were arrested and more than 1,000 injured in over 3,500 encounter engagements under his tenure.