Rahul Gandhi, other Congress MPs from UP to visit Sambhal

Lucknow/Sambhal (UP), Dec 3: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with the five other Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh will visit violence-hit Sambhal on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said.

Newly-elected Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to accompany the delegation, he said. The party's general secretary and UP in-charge Avinash Pande will be there too, Rai told PTI.

Curbs under section 163 (power to issue order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) were set to expire on Sunday and have now been extended till December 31.

When asked about the Rahul Gandhi's visit to Sambhal, Superintendent of Police of Sambhal Krishan Kumar told PTI, "Section 163 of the BNSS is already imposed in Sambhal. No outsider is allowed (to enter Sambhal). If they come, then they will be served a notice."

Sambhal has been in the eye of the storm since November 19, when a Mughal-era mosque was surveyed on court orders following claims that a Harihar temple previously stood at the site.

Violence erupted during a second survey on November 24 as protesters gathered near Shahi Jama Masjid and clashed with security personnel. Four people died and several others were injured in the violence that ensued.

Meanwhile, UP Congress general secretary Sachin Chaudhary told PTI in Sambhal, "National secretary Pradeep Narwal, state vice-president Rizwan Qureshi and I met the family members of deceased Bilal and Noman, and helped them talk to Priyanka Gandhi ji. Priyanka ji enquired about their wellbeing."

Chaudhary also said that Rahul Gandhi will come to Sambhal on Wednesday and there is a programme to meet the family members of the deceased.

Samajwadi Party MLA from Sambhal Iqbal Mahmood late on Monday evening said that he had gone to meet the families of the four deceased and expressed sympathy to them.

"The atrocities that have happened in Sambhal will be raised in the Parliament and state assembly, and after December 10, a Samajwadi Party delegation will come here. There are some things that these people (state government) want to hide. When such incidents happen in any part of the country, everyone wants to go there," Mahmood told reporters.

The SP MLA said his party has demanded that this incident should be investigated by a sitting judge of the high court.

"We do not have faith in the judicial commission inquiry. The governor and the chief minister have formed the panel...it will work under the pressure of the government," he said.

Meanwhile, Maulana Tauqeer Raza, the president of Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IEMC), on Tuesday said that anything can come out from the excavation of religious places, and it would be better to abandon the idea of excavation in the country and to work towards development.

Speaking to reporters in Bareilly, Raza said, "For the unity and integrity of the country, the idea of excavation should be abandoned and development should be thought about. Skeletons of extinct dinosaurs can also be found."

"Times are changing. We should move with the changing time," he said.

Raza also expressed displeasure over not being allowed to meet the people, who were injured in the Sambhal violence, in the private medical college hospital.

He also alleged that the government itself is creating riots and blaming others.

On Monday, scores of Congress workers jostled with police personnel and tried to scale barricades outside the party office in Lucknow as a party delegation led by state unit chief Rai was prevented from leaving for Sambhal, which has been made out of bounds by administration after the November 24 violence.

Amid high drama, Rai, who took the driver's seat in his car with senior party leader PL Punia next to him, could not leave for the "fact-finding" visit even as scuffles broke out between the police and the slogan-shouting party workers, who tried to clear the way for their leaders.

Rai drove the car to some distance inside the Congress office complex but it was stopped by the police at the gate. After this, he sat on a dharna outside the party office along with Congress workers, Punia had said.

A large police contingent had been deployed and barricades put up since Sunday night around the Congress office in Lucknow's Mall Avenue area to prevent Rai and others from leaving for Sambhal.

The Congress slammed the BJP government, saying it was trying to hide its failure with its "anti-democratic" actions. Rai, who had spent the night at the Congress office along with several party workers, later said the party delegation will visit Sambhal when prohibitory orders are lifted.

The BJP hit back with deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak accusing Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders of going to Sambhal for "political tourism". They alleged that the opposition wanted to spoil the "peaceful" atmosphere in the district.