LUCKNOW, Nov. 11 -- In a major operation carried out in the early hours of Monday, police in Hapur district shot dead notorious cow slaughterer, Haseen, who had a bounty of Rs 50,000. Haseen was wanted in around 25 cases across several districts, including charges of cow slaughter, attempted murder, and violations of the Gangster Act. With more than a month still remaining in 2025, the Uttar Pradesh Police have shot dead 43 criminals so far-including the latest Hapur encounter-during the first ten and a half months of the year. This surpasses the previous record of 41 such killings reported in 2018. Notably, 10 of these encounters involved notorious criminals killed in just the past 36 days. In the early hours of Monday, Hapur's Kapurpur police received an alert that a group of criminals was travelling by car to carry out cow slaughter in the forest area of Sapnaavat village. Acting swiftly on the tip-off, station in-charge Vinod Kumar Pandey and his team rushed to the location. Upon seeing the police, the criminals in the car tried to flee. When the police cordoned off the area, the criminals attempted to stop them. During the confrontation, Haseen, a wanted criminal, opened fire, targeting the station in-charge. The police retaliated in self-defense, during which Haseen was injured. He was immediately taken to Dhaulana community health centre, from where, due to his critical condition, he was referred to a hospital in Pilkhuwa. Doctors declared him dead. SP, Hapur, Dhananjay Singh, confirmed the encounter stating that the cops also recovered a car, pistol, and bullet shells from the spot....