Congress Delegation Set To Visit Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal Today Amid Entry Restrictions

A Congress delegation set to visit Sambhal amid tensions following a stone-pelting incident and court-ordered mosque survey.

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...Our workers will try to leave by 10:30 AM. 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 told ANI.

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

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.

Earlier on November 30, a delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP) was prevented from visiting the violence-hit Sambhal district.
SP 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 protestors 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.