Sambhal police have made local Samajwadi Party MP Zia-ur-Rahman Barq and the son of local MLA Iqbal Masood of the same party the first and second accused in an FIR registered in connection with the violence during Sunday’s mosque survey in which four persons lost their lives.

The main Opposition party in Uttar Pradesh rubbished the charge of riot instigation with Barq and Masood, whose son Sohail Iqbal is the second accused, challenging the police to prove the allegation. They said they were not even remotely involved in
the violence.

“The police have stated in its FIR that my son was near the Jama Masjid in the Nakhasa area on Sunday and had instigated the mob to attack cops (during a court-ordered survey). I have proof that he was far away from the violence site but the police have no proof that he was there. The state government (helmed by the BJP) is trying to intimidate and silence us so that we don’t speak against the government-sponsored violence in which police bullets claimed four lives,” Masood said.

Barq said: “I have said before that I was in Bengaluru at that time. The police claim I had delivered an explosive speech at the mosque during Friday prayers and that this was the reason the violence erupted. They have no evidence to substantiate the charges. Let me tell you, they will not be able to silence me. I will continue to raise my voice against the police firing.”

Accompanied by district magistrate Rajendra Pensiya and superintendent of police Krishna Kumar, a team led by Ramesh Raghav, a court-appointed commissioner, had gone to the Jama Masjid in Sambhal city on Sunday morning to survey the shrine.

Some people had filed a petition in a local court on November 19 claiming the mosque was built on the ruins of a Harihar Mandir demolished during Mughal emperor Babur’s rule in 1529 and demanding that the area be handed over to Hindus. The court appointed the commissioner for the survey the same day and Raghav and his team reached the shrine for videography within a few hours.

A mob protesting the survey had clashed with the police, leading to four deaths and injuries to scores, including policemen and district officials. The members of the mosque’s management committee have alleged that they were not notified about the survey or that a petition had been filed in court.

Some people accompanying the court-appointed survey commission to the Jama Masjid had set up a triumphal chant of “Jai Shri Ram” to irritate Muslims, in the presence of the senior police and district officials, multiple Opposition MPs in Uttar Pradesh have alleged.

Zafar Ali, a member of the mosque’s management committee whom the police summoned on Tuesday for interrogation in connection with the violence, was quoted by a source as telling the cops: “The police have alleged that some people were chanting Islamic slogans. There is evidence to prove that Hindu slogans were raised but nobody has any evidence to prove that Islamic slogans were also chanted. The police have ignored this fact and alleged that the minority community was solely to blame for the trouble.”

Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav said the police should name in the FIR “all those who had gone to the mosque for the survey, including the DM and the SP, and put them in jail for firing on the protesters and killing them”.

“We have seen videos of the police firing on the crowd. The way they reached the mosque is proof that they had criminal intentions and wanted to provoke the people of the area,” Akhilesh said.

“A Samajwadi delegation will soon visit the spot and meet the victims. I am also planning to go there. The government must give financial assistance to the families of those who have been killed. They are poor people. We will provide them financial help if the government fails,” Akhilesh said in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Imran Masood, the Congress MP of Saharanpur, said: “Rahul Gandhi (the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha) will visit Sambhal soon to take stock of the situation.”

Krishna Kumar, the Sambhal police chief, said: “We can’t allow politicians and social workers to visit the spot. The situation is normalising and their visit may create trouble at the moment.”

Denying that the police had opened fire on the mob, he iterated that one group shot at another because they had an old enmity over control of the mosque management.

“All the bullets were fired from locally made pistols. Even policemen have suffered bullet injuries. The forensic team has confirmed that illegal weapons were used to attack the police. The rioters also snatched weapons from the police,” Kumar said.

The police have arrested 27 people, including three children and three women. One of the seven FIRs filed by the police states that the mob had committed the violence “with the intention to kill” the cops.

The FIR says that the mob was carrying hockey sticks and also hurled stones at the police. Another FIR says they had firearms and were shooting at the police.

Nishant Malik, a sub-inspector, has stated in his FIR that the police tried to convince the crowd but “Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, Sultan Arif, Hassan, Munna, Faizan, Samad and some unidentified people attacked us with sticks and threw stones at us with the intention to kill and created obstructions for officers on duty”.

“We have sent 24 people to jail and three children to a juvenile justice home,” police chief Kumar said.