Samajwadi Party delegation defers visit to violence-hit Sambhal

Lucknow: A Samajwadi Party delegation's scheduled visit to violence-hit Sambhal district on Tuesday has been postponed following an assurance of a fair probe by the Uttar Pradesh Police chief, a senior leader said.

Four people died and scores, including police personnel, were injured in Sambhal on Sunday after a confrontation erupted over a court-ordered survey of the city's Shahi Jama Masjid in Kot Garvi area, following a petition claiming that a Harihar temple once stood at the site.

Police have so far arrested 25 suspects and lodged seven FIRs in connection with the violence, booking more than 2,750 people, including SP MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq and local SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood's son Sohail Iqbal.

Senior SP leader and Leader of Opposition in UP Legislative Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey on Tuesday said during a press conference the party's visit to Sambhal has been deferred after his interaction with the Director General of Police Prashant Kumar.

"The SP chief (Akhilesh Yadav) had formed a delegation under my leadership to visit Sambhal and get actual information and facts about the incident. I was to leave at 10 am but I had a conversation with the DGP.

"He was aware that I was going to Sambhal and that our people have been falsely implicated even as those who were not present there have been booked in the FIR. The DG assured me of an impartial probe into the matter and detailed investigation into it," Pandey said.

Prasad said he has decided to pay heed to the police chief's advice to refrain from visiting Sambhal for the next three days.

"We have decided to stay here after the assurance and insistence," Pandey said, adding that the DGP has assured him that no innocent person would be implicated.

The situation in violence-hit Sambhal limped back to normalcy on Tuesday with schools reopening and shops in local markets resuming work even as the internet remained suspended.

According to the SP, the delegation was to collect information about the violence and submit a report to party national president Akhilesh Yadav.

The delegation included Pandey, LoP Legislative Council Lal Bihari Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali, Lok Sabha MPs Harinder Malik, Ruchi Vira, Zia ur Rahman Barq, Neeraj Maurya, MLAs Nawab Iqbal, Pinky Yadav, Kamal Akhtar, as well as SP's Moradabad district president Jaiveer Yadav Bareilly chief Shivcharan Kashyap.