BJP attacks UP government over arrests

New Delhi, Aug 25: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for arresting VHP leaders ahead of a religious event.

BJP spokesman Bizay Sonkar Shastri said the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists and religious leaders wanted to carry out the "84 kosi parikrama yatra" and it was their fundamental right to do so.

"The Samajwadi Party government wants to give out a message that it is a messiah of Muslims," Shastri told IANS.

He said the decision to ban the yatra and arrest VHP leaders had created needless tension in Uttar Pradesh.

The VHP leadership was Sunday arrested in the temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh as they tried to proceed for "Saryu Pujan", ahead of the "84 kosi parikrama yatra".

The government had earlier banned the yatra, set to begin from the banks of Saryu river.

The VHP had said the yatra would pass through Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Gonda, Basti and Bahraich districts.

The Aug 25-Sep 13 yatra seeks to seek a grand Ram temple at the site of the razed Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

IANS