Delegation led by UP LoP ‘stopped’ from leaving for violence-hit Bareilly

BAREILLY, Oct 4: A delegation of 14 Samajwadi Party MPs and MLAs who were scheduled to visit violence-hit Bareilly on Saturday were allegedly stopped at their homes by police, Leader of the Opposition in UP Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey said.
Pandey, who was to lead the delegation, alleged that police are deployed outside the homes of all SP party workers, he said.The LoP said they have received two letters, one from the police and another from the Bareilly district magistrate, saying that the SP delegation will “worsen the atmosphere” in the city.
Pandey added that the Yogi Adityanath government was “stopping them to hide its failures”.
Bareilly witnessed violence following the Friday namaz last week.
UP minister JPS Rathore said opposition MPs and leaders who are talking about wanting to visit Bareilly are just trying to “vitiate the atmosphere”. The government will not allow anyone to disturb the peace and tranquillity of Bareilly, he said, adding that there is now complete peace in the city. Speaking to PTI Videos at his residence, the LoP Pandey said, “The circle officer and a senior Local Intelligence Unit officer are here. They are telling me not to go there (Bareilly).” “What will happen if we go? This was done in the case of Sambhal and Bahraich. When our delegation goes there, we will establish peace there, because this isn’t a communal riot, not a Hindu-Muslim conflict, that our visit will escalate it further,” Pandey said.
Referring to protests in the city last week, Pandey claimed that the Muslim community only wanted to give a letter to the authorities, but police resorted to excessive force against them.
“The chief minister should personally go there to see what went wrong and correct the mistakes that have occurred,” he said.
Chief spokesperson of Samajwadi Party, Rajendra Chaudhary, said police confined all members of the delegation to their homes.
This is condemnable and shameful, Chaudhary was quoted as saying in a statement. (PTI)