KOLKATA: A four-member delegation of the All India Trinamool Congress was detained at the Lucknow airport on Sunday afternoon. The delegation included former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, former Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal and two sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Nadimul Haque.
They had arrived in Lucknow to meet the people and families of those impacted by the December 19 violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
A message shared by Nadimul Haque said, "As soon as we got down from the aeroplane, we were surrounded by the police. When we boarded the bus, the police made all the passengers disembark. We were taken by the police to a spot on the runway. We are sitting on the ground in dharna. Net is down so the message may reach you late."
A delegation of the Samajwadi Party, which had gone to receive the Trinamool delegation, was also stopped. It included SP MLAs Nafees Ahmad and Arvind Singh and MLCs Rajpal Kashyap and Udaiveer Singh. Nafees Ahmad told reporters: "The Trinamool delegation is inside. We are not allowed to meet them. Nobody is letting us know what their crime is."
Earlier, speaking to reporters, Uttar Pradesh DGP O.P. Singh had said: "We have come to know that some political leaders of Trinamool Congress want to visit Lucknow. We will not permit them as Section 144 is imposed in the area and their visit can make the situation tense."
Sources said that the delegation would be sent to either Kolkata or Delhi by the next available flight.