LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, appears to be sailing in troubled waters in connection with his alleged role in the violence during a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal on November 24 last year. The SP MP is a named accused in a case related to the violence, which claimed five lives and left scores injured, including 19 police personnel.
Barq has been accused of inciting the mob to resort to violence during the survey. According to Additional District Standing Counsel Hariom Prakash Saini, Zafar Ali Advocate—the arrested chairman of the Jama Masjid Management Committee—disclosed before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that, on the fateful day, Barq had asked him to gather a mob around the mosque in order to stall the survey "at any cost." This disclosure prompted the police to collect circumstantial evidence against the MP.
Barq, meanwhile, has claimed that he was in Bengaluru on November 24 to attend a meeting of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
Notably, the bail plea of Zafar Ali was once again rejected by Additional District Judge (ADJ)-II on Friday. Ali is accused of gathering a mob and inciting it to pelt stones at the survey team and the accompanying police personnel, along with acts of vandalism.
Ali allegedly revealed to the SIT that, initially, Barq said that “the mosque belonged to Muslims and would remain so till ‘Qayamat.’” However, when the protests by the Muslim community turned violent, he asked Ali to call a press conference and put the blame for the loss of lives on the police, saying that “all those killed during the violence were killed by the gunshots fired by cops.” Ali further claimed that the MP told him to say that the police were firing from “illegal weapon.”
All such details were revealed when the SIT submitted the case diary in the ADJ-II court on Friday. Saini added that, when the SIT confronted Zafar Ali further—asking him if Barq was unaware of the court-ordered survey—he stated that the MP was in complete knowledge of it.