With gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad's son Asad and an accomplice, both wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, getting eliminated in an exchange of fire with police, hashtag "mitti me mila dunga" (reduce to dust) was trending on Twitter on Thursday.

Facing flak over the brazen killing of Pal, a prime witness in the 2005 case of a BSP MLA's murder, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on February 25 accused the Samajwadi Party of nurturing mafias and vowed to destroy them.

"The mafioso whose name is emerging ... is it not true that the Samajwadi Party had made him an MP... He was a mafioso nurtured by the SP. Our government is working to break their back. 'Mitti me mila denge'," Adityanath said in the Assembly.

On Thursday, several users made a hashtag of Adityanath's statement as they tweeted about the alleged encounter in Jhansi.

The hashtag was trending at the top for a major part of the day as several users supported the police action. Till late evening, close to 60 thousand people had tweeted using the hashtag.

Several other hashtags like "encounter", "Atiq Ahmad", "UP Police", "UPSTF", "Guddu Muslim", "Asad Ahmad" among others were also trending on Twitter.

Some users also appreciated Adityanath's zero-tolerance policy against criminals. A video Adityanath making 'Mitti Me Mila Dunga...' remark in the Assembly also went viral on social media platforms.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.