Varanasi: A Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation was detained at the airport here on Saturday when it was going to meet families of victims of the Sonbhadra clash in which ten people were gunned down this week over a land dispute, party MP Derek O’Brien said.
The TMC team comprises O’Brien, MP and leader of the delegation Sunil Mondal and MP Abir Ranjan Biswas.
Trinamool Parliamentary delegation detained at Varanasi airport.ADM,SP have not told us under which section.(“Doing as told from topmost”).We have told them that we will cooperate,wish to meet injured &then proceed to Sonbhadra to meet &give confidence to grieving families: Derek
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 20, 2019
At noon, the District Magistrate finally met the MPs and informed them that the police would escort them to the”BHU Trauma Centre to meet docs attending the injured”.
#UPDATE
Dharna by Trinamool MPs near airport tarmac started at 9.30, continues. DM met MPs at 12 &informed that police will escort us to BHU TraumaCentre to meet docs attending the injured.After that,permission notwithstanding,deleg wishes to proceed to spot of #SonbhadraMassacre pic.twitter.com/qedSy5AtoU— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 20, 2019
The detention of the team comes a day after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained and stopped in Mirzapur district from going to Sonbhadra to meet those injured in the incident and the victims’ families.
Video message from Trinamool delegation who have been detained/arrested (they still haven’t been told why!) at Varanasi airport tarmac. They were on their way to meet the injured in hospital and meet & give confidence to the grieving families in #Sonbhadra
Watch>> pic.twitter.com/1cSjPfZ7cT— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 20, 2019
“We were stopped by police at the Varanasi airport while we were going to Sonbhadra to meet the victims…and give confidence to the grieving families. There is no violation of Section 144 as we are less in number,” he stated.
The TMC delegation had announced on Friday that a team of its MPs will visit on Saturday, the families of the Sonbhadra clash victims in UP. The party was scheduled to return by an evening flight after their visit to Sonbhadra.
The decision assumes significance due to the intensified political bickering and violence between the TMC and the BJP since the Lok Sabha elections in which the saffron party made significant inroads in West Bengal.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee had attacked each other during the election campaign in the eastern state.
Also read: Several TMC Members to Join BJP Soon: Mukul Roy
The BJP has emerged as the main opponent of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal ever since the saffron party won 18 of the 42 seats in the state in this Lok Sabha polls up from two seats it had won in 2014.
Ten people were killed and 28 injured in the clash between supporters of village head Yagya Dutt and Gond tribals over a piece of land in Sonbhadra’s Ghorawal area on Wednesday. Dutt’s supporters allegedly opened fire on the tribals.
Twenty-nine people, including Dutt and his brother, were arrested. Prohibitory orders are in force in Ghorawal area in Sonbhadra district, and thorough checking of vehicles is on to monitor the movement of people.