Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 3, 2010
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/azamgarh-factfinding-visit-says-digvijay/574790/0
A day before his much-hyped visit to Azamgarh,
AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said he was going there on a fact-finding
visit to find out "the reasons behind Azamgarh being named in terror
attack cases". He said he would visit the families because people of
Azamgarh wanted him to be there and said that if the government imposed Section
144, then he will go there alone.
This came even as the Ulema Council, a body
of clerics formed in the backdrop of Batla House encounter just before the
Lok Sabha elections last year, announced that it would not allow Singh to
meet the families of those accused in terror attacks. Doubting Singh's intentions,
Ulema Council has called the visit an eyewash and declared that it will do
its best to stop Singh.
Singh, however, said representatives of the
families from Azamgarh had met him and told him that no one visits them to
listen to their problems. "A number of people from the area claim they
are innocent. Some had visited me a few months ago. I can at least give them
a patient hearing. I am just trying to find out what had happened in the past
which led to Azamgarh being named in terror attacks. It would be kind of fact-finding,"
said Singh.
The AICC general secretary was among the few
Congress leaders to demand a judicial probe into the Batla House encounter
and also to demand that the aggrieved must also be heard by the NHRC. He will
meet the families of youths named in terror cases in Sanjarpur on February
3 and in Mubarakpur on February 4.
Asked about reports of opposition to his visit
in Azamgarh and an advisory from the district administration recommending
him not to visit the area, Singh said that fundamentalist forces, be it Hindus
or Muslims, have always opposed the Congress.
Ulema Council chief Maulana Amir Rashadi,
however, said: "Entire Azamgarh is with us in opposing Digvijay Singh.
They can shoot at us if they want, but we will not allow him inside Sanjarpur."
"What kind of information does he want
from us when everything is an open chapter. We had asked for a judicial inquiry
into the encounter but they could not hold it."
Hindu outfits like the VHP and the Hindu Yuva
Vahini have also opposed Singh's visit, alleging that it would encourage terrorism.
