In a disturbing incident, two children were hacked to death on Tuesday evening in Uttar Pradesh Badaun’s Baba Colony by a person, who was later killed in an encounter with the police, news agency ANI reported.

The incident took place when the two children, aged around 11 and 6 years, were playing on the terrace of a building. The accused came, and waited for some time before killing them, ANI quoted Bareilly inspector-general of police Rakesh Kumar as saying.

“The police reached the spot and the accused tried to escape. We chased the accused. He fired at the police and was killed in retaliatory fire. The accused died on the spot. The police are investigating the case,” Rakesh Kumar said.

Who is the accused and why did he kill the children?

IG Rakesh Kumar said the accused is aged between 25 and 30 years. “We will be disclosing their details after further investigation,” he said.

When asked about the motive behind the murders, Badaun district magistrate (DM) Manoj Kumar said, “The reason for the murder is not clear yet. It will be found out during the investigation.”

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Tension in Badaun

Heavy police security was deployed at the Baba Colony located near the Mandi Samiti outpost as locals protested against the ghastly double murder.

NDTV reported that angry locals set a shop on fire after the incident in Baba Colony. The situation is now under control, the police said.

District magistrate Manoj Kumar said some people got agitated after the incident and they have been asked to maintain peace.

“We received information this evening that at Baba colony near the Mandi Samiti police outpost, a man entered a house and murdered two young children. After the incident, some people got agitated. The people have been asked to maintain peace,” Manoj Kumar told ANI. He added that the bodies have been sent for postmortem. “We have assured them that an investigation will be carried out,” the DM said.

(With inputs from ANI)