Ex-SP spokesperson and team attacked, Bajrang Dal blamed

AGRA :Former Samajwadi Party spokesperson Pankhuri Pathak on Saturday alleged that Bajrang Dal activists attacked her and her team members in Aligarh when they tried to meet families of two persons killed in an encounter recently.

“Leader of the Bajrang Dal mob that attacked me. First they tried provoking us, when that did not happen they attacked. The attack on us was preplanned ... Total mobocracy in the state,” Pathak tweeted along with a video and tagged the handles of the state police, the chief minister and the DGP while daring them to arrest the alleged attackers. Pathak told reporters on her return from Atrauli that at least three members of her team were assaulted and injured by alleged Bajrang Dal activists who attacked them “in the presence of the police”. She also claimed the Bajrang Dal activists pelted their cars with stones.

She alleged that police personnel present on the spot did not help her. She said she would lodge a complaint in Delhi or Lucknow as she did not have faith in the Aligarh police.

Prashant Singh, the circle officer for Atrauli circle in Aligarh, said, “No formal complaint was lodged apart from information on Dial 100 by Pathak. We are looking into the matter on information received about the incident.”

She said, “We were warned not to come back to Atrauli. We are not reporting this matter to the Aligarh police because we have no faith left in them. We are returning to Delhi and will decide our future course of action in this matter.” Pathak added, “Our only objective in meeting the families of those who were killed in police encounter last month was to ascertain on humanitarian grounds whether they facing any sort of harassment.”

Mustaqeem and Naushad, who carried a bounty of Rs 25,000 each on their heads, were killed in an encounter in Harduaganj area in Aligarh on September 20.

“I was told about pathetic condition in which families of Mustaqeem and Naushad were living in a village of Aligarh. Thus, I planned the visit. I was accompanied by locals from Aligarh and writer Amaresh Mishra. But armed Bajrang Dal activists targeted us. All through, cops both in plainclothes and uniform, remained mute spectators,” Pathak said on the phone after returning to Delhi.

“Ayan, a local assisting us, was injured and is admitted in hospital at AMU. My car was badly damaged in stone-pelting by Bajrang Dal who were inclined to hurt us. Despite our pleas for an interaction, they were bent upon violence,” said Pathak.

‘I dialled 100 and was asked to contact police at Atrauli police station. But seeing their attitude, I found it better to move back,”” Pathak added.

Meanwhile, a senior office bearer of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (western UP) termed the allegations levelled by Pathak as “completely false.”

Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.