NEW DELHI: A delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP), including MPs Iqra Hasan and Mohibbullah Nadvi, on Saturday left from the residence of senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Harendra Singh Malik en route to trouble-torn Bareilly. However, the delegation was stopped before reaching its destination by a heavy police deployment.
The visit comes in the wake of recent tensions in Bareilly over the controversial ‘I Love Muhammad’ slogan row.
Party leaders intend to meet those affected by the incident and assess the ground situation. Ziaur Rahman Barq, another prominent SP MP, was scheduled to join the delegation from Sambhal.
However, the delegation was stopped before reaching its destination by a heavy police deployment.
SP MLA Ataur Rahman, who was also part of the visiting team, alleged that the administration was trying to suppress democratic outreach.
On being stopped from travelling to Bareilly over the 'I Love Muhammad' row and the violence that had taken place over it, Samajwadi Party MP Hasan said, "The ruling power is involved. Our effort was to reach there, listen to the people’s suffering, and raise their voice, which is the duty of a public representative, and to help them. But here, we were stopped."
MP Harendra Singh Malik added, "We just wanted to travel within our own country, to go to our own districts, and yet we are being treated in this manner. If the government treated terrorists this way, the Pulwama and Pahalgam attacks would not have occurred. They should have been stopped."
SP MP Mohibbullah Nadvi also said, "In Bareilly, the law and the Constitution are being torn apart, and people there are being persecuted. To witness this, and on the party president’s instructions, our entire delegation is leaving from here. We will continue to fight in the capital. The Samajwadi Party is confident we will win this fight..."
SP MLA Ataur Rahman said: "We were going to Bareilly on Mata Prasad Pandey's instructions to meet the victims of the incident there so that people can get justice, but police from many stations have been deployed here to prevent us from going there."