Sonbhadra firing: TMC delegation detained at Varanasi airport

A delegation of the Trinamool Congress that intended to visit the site of the recent firing incident in Sonbhadra alleged it was detained by police at the Varanasi airport on Saturday morning. Sonbhadra has been in the news since Wednesday since 10 Gond tribals were gunned down over a land dispute. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi was detained at Mirzapur on Friday when she set out to visit Sonbhadra.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien uploaded a video on Twitter to announce that the Trinamool delegation was detained. The delegation was originally meant to comprise O'Brien, Sunil Mondal, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Uma Saren. But in the video, O'Brien claimed there were only three people in the TMC team, so the authorities could not detain them under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

O'Brien said senior officials including the ADM were present when they were detained. He claims in the video that the TMC delegation wanted to visit the people injured in the Sonbhadra firing at the Banaras Hindu University's hospital and then proceed to Sonbhadra to console the kin of the firing victims. O'Brien told mediapersons that the TMC delegation were requested to go to a guesthouse.

At least 29 people have been arrested in connection with the Sonbhadra firing incident, which has triggered a political uproar. The Congress has protested the detention of Priyanka and called for nationwide protests. Priyanka made it clear on Saturday she intended to proceed to Sonbhadra and would not leave until she was allowed to meet the relatives of victims of the firing.

In August last year, a delegation of TMC MPs and MLAs was detained at the Silchar Airport in Assam when they arrived in the neighbouring state to assess the condition of ethnic Bengalis whose names were not listed in the National Register of Citizens.