Sambhal: Samajwadi Party defers visit after DGP’s assurance

A Samajwadi Party delegation's scheduled visit to violence-hit Sambhal district on 26 November, Tuesday, has been postponed following an assurance of a fair probe by an Uttar Pradesh police chief, a senior leader said.

Four people died and scores, including police personnel, were injured in Sambhal on Sunday, 24 November, after a confrontation erupted over a court-ordered survey of the city's Shahi Jama Masjid in the 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.

Iqbal has been named in an FIR over the clashes and he claimed that he is being wrongly implicated.

“I am innocent and have not done anything wrong. I wasn’t present at the spot, there is no photo or video to prove me guilty or to prove that I was present at the time of violence,” said Iqbal. Claiming that he was in regular touch with the administration to maintain peace, Iqbal said Sambhal was like a family to him. “I am completely committed to maintaining peace,” he said.

During a press conference on Tuesday, senior SP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the UP legislative assembly Mata Prasad Pandey said 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 a.m. but I had a conversation with the DGP," he said.

"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 a semblance of normalcy on Tuesday, with schools reopening and shops in local markets resuming work even as internet services 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 of the legislative council Lal Bihari Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali, Lok Sabha MPs Harinder Malik, Ruchi Vira, Zia ur Rahman Barq and Neeraj Maurya, MLAs Nawab Iqbal, Pinky Yadav and Kamal Akhtar, as well as SP's Moradabad district president Jaiveer Yadav and Bareilly chief Shivcharan Kashyap.