Sambhal violence was pre-planned by UP police, BJP govt: Zia-ur-Rahman Barq
Says no evidence links local Muslims to violence
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament Zia-ur-Rahman Barq has said that the 2024 Sambhal violence was “pre-planned and orchestrated” by the Uttar Pradesh police and the BJP-led state government, rejecting allegations that local Muslims were responsible.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Barq was reacting to a judicial commission report tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, which accused him and others of conspiring to incite the violence. “No evidence shows residents carrying or firing weapons,” he said, adding that the government was using the report for political gains.
The findings were contained in a report by a three-member judicial commission headed by former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Devendra Kumar Arora. The report, submitted in August 2025, was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The panel was set up to investigate the violence that erupted in Sambhal during a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid after claims that the mosque had been built over the site of an ancient Shiva temple.
The commission alleged that the violence was “pre-planned and orchestrated” in connivance with Barq, Suhail Iqbal, son of MLA Iqbal Mehmood, and members of the Shahi Jamia Masjid management committee. It claimed the unrest was “neither spontaneous nor accidental but a calculated and organised mobilisation.”
The panel gave a clean chit to Uttar Pradesh Police over the deaths of four Muslims killed during the violence.
Samajwadi Party MP Mohibullah Nadvi defended Barq and Suhail Iqbal, describing their implication in the case as part of a conspiracy.
Meanwhile, an earlier fact-finding report by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Karwan-e-Mohabbat had described the incident as “targeted anti-Muslim violence,” pointing to police excesses, state complicity and systematic repression following the mosque survey.
