‘Sambhal violence well-planned conspiracy’: Akhilesh Yadav in Parliament

Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday spoke in Parliament on the Sambhal violence, saying the incident was part of a “well-planned conspiracy”.

He said the narrative of excavations in mosques, allegedly created by the BJP and its allies, would destroy the brotherhood in the country.

“The incident that took place in Sambhal is a well-planned conspiracy, and the brotherhood in Sambhal has been destroyed. The talks of excavation throughout the country done by BJP and its allies will destroy the brotherhood of the country,” he said in the Lok Sabha.

Earlier today, Yadav accused the Sambhal administration of acting in a biased manner and alleged they were behaving like BJP workers.

“The officers out there are working arbitrarily – such that they are working as workers of the BJP. The Sambhal incident is a well-thought strategy of the BJP to deviate people from other issues. Those who want to dig everywhere – someday they will lose the cordiality and brotherhood of the country,” Akhilesh Yadav said earlier today.

Four people died on November 24 after a mob pelted stones at a team of officials that was conducting a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in UP’s Sambhal.

The survey was ordered by the court in response to a petition that claimed the mosque was built on the ruins of an ancient temple.

The Samajwadi Party chief reacted to the arrest of the Hindu monk, Chinmoy Krishna Das, over sedition charges in Bangladesh.

“The government of India should think about it – these things shouldn’t happen – how they can claim to be a strong government if they cannot respect our saints,” he said.

Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP, Ram Gopal Yadav, today said Sambhal victims died in police firing. He also claimed that the mob that pelted stones at the survey team thought the mosque was being vandalised.

“On 24th December, at 6 am, police were deployed in the entire Sambhal. The people of Sambhal did not even know why the police were being deployed. After some time, the DM, SSP, lawyer, and some people went with the police playing drums and entered the mosque. The crowd suspected that they were going to vandalize the mosque. SDM opened the water tank and when water started flowing out, people suspected that something was going wrong in it, and then there was unrest. The police opened fire, 5 people were killed, 20 people were injured, cases were filed against hundreds of people and many are in jail, Those who were caught were beaten badly. I and many other people believe that in the elections that were held earlier in Uttar Pradesh, the police in the neighbouring districts did not allow anyone to cast their vote and forcibly took over the elections. All this happened in a way to divert attention from that,” he said.