Kairana: Amid claims and counter claims of exodus of Hindu families from UP's Kairana, BJP MLA Sangeet Som has announced that he will undertake a week-long “Paidal Nirbhay Yatra” across western UP from Friday to make people feel secure in the region.
The March will begin from Meerut and cover Muzaffarnagar and other areas of west UP before culminating in Kairana town in Shamli, according to a report in Indian Express.
Som, an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, told the daily that he just wants “to make people feel safe”. “I don’t know why people are creating a communal atmosphere. I want them to live peacefully.
Accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzaffarnagar riots, Som was booked under the National Security Act in September 2013.
He warned the state government of rallies across UP if a “proper inquiry was not conducted”.
A nine-member BJP team on Wednesday visited Kairana to review the situation over alleged migration of Hindus that has set off a political slugfest even as Congress said the BJP leadership has been "totally exposed" after a party MPs U-turn on the issue.
BJP MP Hukum Singh, took a u turn on the issue yeaterday, saying that the "migration" of Hindus from Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh was "not communal" in nature but had more to do with the law and order situation even as he claimed the number of families that had to flee can go up to 400-500.
The MP had earlier released a list of 346 families who had been forced to flee the town, which has 85 per cent Muslim population. Kairana is in Shamli district which witnessed communal riots in 2013.
The fact-finding team was announced by Shah on Monday during the course of its National Executive meeting in Allahabad after BJP MP Hukum Singh alleged there was a communal angle to the migration from Kairana in Shamli district in UP where elections are due next year.
Singh, who had recently alleged that several Hindu families have been forced to migrate from Kairana following atrocities from "one particular community", did a volte face yesterday, saying that it was "not communal" in nature but had more to do with the law and order situation.
