Priyanka detained on way to meet carnage victims

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Friday detained after she embarked on a dharna on the road following denial of permission from the officials to proceed to Umbhi village in Sonbhadra district, where 10 tribals were killed over a land dispute on Wednesday.

According to the police sources here, Priyanka and her cavalcade was stopped near Narayanpur in Mirzapur district, about 250 kilometres from here, when she was on way to Umbhi village.

As the officials told Priyanka that she could not proceed further in view of the imposition of section 144, the Congress leader embarked on a 'dharna' with scores of party leaders and workers on the road.

With attempts to persuade the Congress leader to call off her dharna having failed, the authorities took her into custody and she was taken to the government guest house a few kilometres away to Chunar, sources said.

Sources said that Priyanka embarked on a dharna in the guest house to press her demand for going to meet the victims.

''This government has failed miserably on the law and order front....it now wants to hide its failure by preventing me to meet the victims,'' the Congress leader told reporters.

She said that the officials failed to show her any documents that justified their action.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, however, blamed the Congress for the incident. ''The land had been transferred to a Society in 1955, when Congress was in power,'' he said.

Ten members of a tribal community, including women, were killed and around two dozen others injured, some seriously, in a violent clash over land dispute in Sonbhadra, about 400 kilometres from here, on Wednesday.

Twenty-nine persons, including the main culprit, have been arrested in this connection, sources said. The attack was led by the 'pradhan' (panchayat chief) of Umbhi village Yagyadutt Bhurtia, who tried to take possession of around 200 'bighas' (a unit to measure the area of the agricultural field) in the village.

The tribals, who had been tilling the land for the past several years, resisted the attempt, following which the 'pradhan' and his goons, who were armed with guns, opened fire at the tribals killing eight of them on the spot. Two persons succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.