LUCKNOW: The Sambhal district administration on Saturday extended the restriction on the entry of outsiders in the western UP district till December 10. Its earlier ban on the entry of outsiders had to expire on Saturday. Meanwhile, three Samajwadi Party MPs, on their way to Sambhal, were stopped in Ghaziabad. A 15-member delegation of the main opposition party in UP was scheduled to visit Sambhal to gather information about the violence that broke out on November 24 over a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid.Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey, who had to lead the SP delegation, told mediapersons outside his Lucknow residence that a senior IAS officer called him and requested him not to visit Sambhal. “The Sambhal district magistrate also called and told me that the ban on the entry of outsiders had been extended,” said Pandey.The SP took to microblogging site ‘X’ to post that the state government deployed police at the homes of leaders who were part of the delegation, preventing them from travelling to Sambhal. “The BJP government is hiding the truth of the Sambhal violence. The SP delegation should have been given permission to visit,” it said.“To maintain peace and order, the imposition of Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) has been extended to December 31 in the district,” said Sambhal DM Rajendra Pensiya. “No outsider, any social organisation or public representative can enter the borders of the district without seeking the permission of the competent authority till December 10,” he added.SP’s Muzaffarnagar MP Harendra Malik, accompanied by his Kairana counterpart Iqra Hasan and Sambhal MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, was stopped from entering the town from Ghaziabad. “I don’t understand why we are being stopped. Are the opposition MPs so irresponsible that they can’t be allowed to move within the state,” Malik asked. In Moradabad, SP MP Ruchi Veera’s residence was surrounded by cops to prevent her from travelling to Sambhal.Tension had been brewing in Sambhal since November 19 when the court-ordered survey of the Mughal-era mosque was carried out following claims that a temple previously stood at the site. Five people were killed in the violence.
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