Congress leaders in Azamgarh greeted by black flags
By IANSWednesday, February 3, 2010
LUCKNOW - Members of the Ulema Council, a body of clerics, waved black flags and shouted slogans as senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh and other party leaders Wednesday arrived in Azamgarh on a two-day visit, police said.
Wearing black badges, members of the Ulema Council stopped Singh’s cavalcade at various places including, Devgaon, Lalganj, Mohammadpur and Fariha in Azamgarh, some 300 km from Lucknow.
It was only after the efforts of the security personnel, that Singh along with other Congress leaders managed to resume their visit.
As per the schedule, Singh while in Azamgarh’s Sanjarpur town was to meet the family members of the two alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives Atif and Chhota Sajid, killed in September 2008 by the police during the Batla House shootout in New Delhi.
While Singh met Sajid’s family, members of Atif’s family refused to meet him. Atif’s family said they would meet Singh or Congress leaders only after their demand to carry out a judicial enquiry into the Batla House shootout was met.
Sajid’s family handed over a memorandum to Singh for conducting a CBI and a judicial enquiry into the Batla House shootout.
Without taking the names of Sajid and Atif, Singh said, “I have seen the photographs of one of the boys killed in the encounter… The photo shows a bullet pierced his head… It should be noted that normally in encounters, one is not shot in the head.”
Though Singh did not assure that he will get a judicial inquiry conducted in the Batla House shootout case, he said he would try his best to get an enquiry conducted by the National Investigating Agency (NIA).
Though the Ulema Council has termed his two-day visit as a “gimmick to strengthen Muslim votes”, Singh claimed the visit was not driven by politics.
“I am not here for doing politics… I am here to hear you so that no innocent gets punished. I want to establish communal harmony,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ulema Council has reiterated that they would continue to protest against Singh on his second day visit to Azamgarh.
