Congress delegation to visit Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal today

LUCKNOW: A Congress delegation, led by the party’s Uttar Pradesh president Ajay Rai, is scheduled to visit Sambhal on Monday, where a stone-pelting incident took place on November 24.

“All the party workers decided that we will stay in one place at our party office. It is our good fortune that we stayed here today and decided the strategy for the future as to how we will go and what we will do…We will try and follow the Gandhian way since they have been deployed in large numbers outside…

“It is their job to stop them, they will stop us, it is our job to go and we will try to go. There is only one reason to go, the atrocities and injustice that they have done there, the way people were beaten up there, the way they were shot in the head, the government is scared of all these things that the government will be exposed”, Ajay Rai said.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress chief and other party leaders stayed in the party office in Lucknow last night.

#WATCH | Lucknow | On Congress delegation being stopped from going to Sambhal, Congress leader Aradhana Mishra says, “This is anarchy. It is unfortunate that a delegation which was going for fact-finding is being stopped from going to Sambhal. Police have been deployed at my… pic.twitter.com/22B5w5ltWd

— ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2024

On Sunday, amid massive security, a three-member judicial committee conducted an inspection near the Shahi Masjid area in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal on Sunday where a stone-pelting incident took place on November 24. The committee members visited the areas and spoke to the residents as well as officials regarding the incident. The panel was accompanied by security personnel as they visited the violence-hit area.

On November 30, a delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP) was prevented from visiting the violence-hit Sambhal district. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the administration’s statements were being dictated by the government.

“A Samajwadi Party delegation was on its way to Sambhal. We all support peace and justice. The administration’s statements are made at the government’s behest. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure justice for the people”, he said.

Tensions in Sambhal have been high since November 19, when a local court ordered a survey of the mosque. Clashes between protesters and police over the court-ordered survey of the Jama Masjid resulted in four deaths. The survey was initiated following a petition claiming the mosque site was originally a Harihar temple. (ANI)