A four-member Trinamul Congress delegation on a trip to meet the kin of Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters killed in Uttar Pradesh last week was “detained” in Lucknow on Sunday.

Former Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, Joynagar MP Pratima Mondal and Rajya Sabha members Nadimul Haque and Abir Biswas were surrounded by Uttar Pradesh police as soon as they landed at the Lucknow airport.

“As soon as we disembarked from the aircraft, police surrounded us. We were taken to a secluded spot on the runway. We started a dharna,” Haque said over the phone from Lucknow.

“We were arbitrarily, undemocratically and forcefully detained by Uttar Pradesh police,” he added.

The delegation was sent by Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee in the wake of deaths of at least 16 protesters in alleged police action in UP since Friday. “We protested in Gandhian style, refusing water and food. Satyagraha. The UP government acted like the British, instructing their police,” said Trivedi.

Seniors in the Trinamul leadership asked why only BJP-ruled states were witnessing such violence and deaths.