Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder Randhawa detained by police in UP's Saharanpur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 4

The Uttar Pradesh police have detained a delegation of Punjab ministers and MLAs led by Deputy CM and Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa at Saharanpur, a government spokesperson said. 

They were detained to prevent their entry into UP post Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight people were killed on Sunday during a farmers’ protest.

“We have been detained at Shahjahanpur Chowk,” Randhawa told The Tribune over phone.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government requested the Lucknow airport authority not to allow the arrival of the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and the Punjab Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who had announced plans to visit Lakhimpur Kheri, in view of the violence that erupted there.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri: Priyanka, Deepender Hooda detained; Akhilesh, BSP's SC Mishra stopped in Lucknow

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Rakesh Tikait reaches violence-hit Lakhimpur Kheri

Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers' protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

"After the incident in Lakhimpur, the district magistrate has imposed prohibitory orders there to maintain law and order. It is requested that you should not allow Chhattisgarh CM and Punjab deputy CM at the CCS Airport in Lucknow," Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said in a letter dated October 3 to the Airport Authority of India.

Baghel and Randhawa had announced that they would visit Lakhimpur on Monday.

Meanwhile, Baghel targeted the Uttar Pradesh government, asking if civil rights had been suspended in the state.

"Uttar Pradesh government is issuing 'farmaan (diktat)' to me for not coming to the state. Have civil rights been suspended in UP? If Section 144 is imposed in Lakhimpur, then why is the dictatorial government stopping me from landing in Lucknow?" Baghel asked in a tweet in Hindi. PTI

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