TMC delegation, set to meet families of UP victims, detained at airport

A four-member Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation, which was set to meet the families of those killed during protests in Uttar Pradesh over the amended Citizenship Act, was detained at Lucknow airport on Sunday (December 22), reports said.

The delegation, which is led by former union minister Dinesh Trivedi, comprises of MPs, Md Nadimul Haque, Pratima Mondal and Abir Biswas. The party members thereafter staged a sit-in demonstration near a hanger airport, news agency PTI quoted Haque as saying.

Also read | Shops sealed over violence in Uttar Pradesh after Yogi’s ‘revenge’ remark

“We have been detained at Lucknow airport. As soon as we got down from the aircraft, we were surrounded by the police and were taken by the police to a secluded spot on the runway. We are staging a dharna near a hanger,” Haque said.

Earlier, the party had said the delegation was going on a humanitarian mission to Lucknow. “Our delegation is going to Uttar Pradesh on a humanitarian mission to be with the grieving families of those killed and also meet those injured in the incidents,” TMC’s all-India general secretary Subrata Bakshi had said in a statement.

Also read | Govt will avenge destruction of public assets during protests: Adityanath

The amended Citizenship Act had triggered protests across the country, several of which had turned violent with mobs pelting stones and torching vehicles. Uttar Pradesh has been the worst-hit with at least 16 deaths reported from the state during the violence.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday met the family of Suleiman, who died during protests in Bijnor on December 20.

(With inputs from agencies)