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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged a 'well-planned' conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal, where a team of Congress MPs led by Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit on December 4 amid restrictions imposed by the district administration.
Raising the Sambhal issue in Parliament, Yadav alleged that police personnel fired from official and personal weapons, killing innocent people and injuring several others after some locals pelted stones at them to protest their high-handedness.
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, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with the five other Congress MPs from Uttar Pradesh will visit violence-hit Sambhal on Wednesday.
Newly-elected Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to accompany the delegation, he said.
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."
Inside Parliament, Akhilesh Yadav demanded the suspension of guilty officials and registration of a murder case against them to ensure that there is no such 'violation' of the Constitution again.
While he spoke in Lok Sabha, his uncle and Ram Gopal Yadav raised the matter in Rajya Sabha and echoed similar views.
Ram Gopal Yadav said Sambhal was converted into a police zone and people were baffled why it was being done. When Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said certain parts of his statement would not go on record, SP and some other opposition parties staged a walkout.
In his speech in Lok Sabha, Akhilesh Yadav claimed the violence was part of a 'well-planned' conspiracy.
The Uttar Pradesh bypolls were first shifted to November 20 from November 13 and a local civil judge (senior division) ordered the survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid on the same day a petition was filed claiming that a temple once stood at the site, he elaborated.
The court passed the order on November 19 without listening to the mosque committee and it is surprising that the local administration reached for the survey within a couple of hours, he said.
"It is not without basis when we say that the government does not follow the Constitution," he said.
Everyone cooperated and the survey was completed. Muslim groups started preparing to argue their case in the next hearing on November 29, the SP president said.
However, the administration said on November 23 that another survey would be carried out the next day. Muslim groups suggested that another survey should be done only after the court passes another direction but the administration was 'dictatorial', he said.
While the mosque committee showed patience during the survey on November 24, the circle officer abused locals and ordered a lathi-charge when asked for reasons by locals, Akhilesh Yadav alleged.
On Hindu groups in parts of the country raising the issue of some mosques, including the famous shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, being built after allegedly demolishing Hindu temples, Akhilesh Yadav said this talk of digging across the country will end up hurting the communal amity, brotherhood and 'Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb'.
He made a brief mention of the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act which provides for the maintenance of religious character of places of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP E T Mohammed Basheer said this Act is now under threat and described the Sambhal incident as shocking.
Akhilesh Yadav also spoke outside Parliament and said the Uttar Pradesh government was behind the incident.
The Bharatiya Janata Party should look at Kailash Mansarovar, a Hindu pilgrimage site located in China, instead of 'digging' everywhere. A day might come when China might not allow Indians to go for darshan, he said.
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.
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."