Tension mounted in the twin towns of Ayodhya and Faizabad on Saturday on the eve of the VHP’s proposed yatra with the arrest of over 347 VHP activists.
BJP MLA Savitri Bai Phule, VHP’s provincial coordinator Acharya Kushmuni and Mahant Santosh Das, a.k.a. Sathu Baba, a VHP office-bearer in Varanasi, were taken into preventive custody or put under house arrest while prominent VHP leader Mahant Ram Saran Das was held at Ram Sanehi Ghat in Ayodhya.
In Amethi, Peethdheshwar of Sagra Ashram Abhay Chaitanya Mauni Maharaj was also put under house arrest as a precautionary measure.
According to a senior home department official, preventive arrests were made in Kanpur City (100), Kanpur Dehat (35), Banda (10), Fatehpur (17), Allahabad (43), Faizabad (62), Balrampur (11), Basti (18), Varanasi (9) and Jaunpur (7).
Faizabad district magistrate Vipin Kumar Dwiwedi said that warrants have been issued against senior VHP leaders Ashok Singhal, Pravin Togadia and Ram Vilas Vedanti, among others.
Meanwhile, VHP leader Ashok Singhal, who was placed under house arrest on Friday, said that the UP government was behaving as if “we are going to war with China”.
VHP leader Swami Chinmayanand was detained in Shahjahanpur where his supporters held demonstrations. “Where is the need for so much force for sadhus and saints? We are simply taking out a yatra and not going to war with the state government,” he said.
A team led by the Faizabad DM and SSP also carried out searches at Karsewak Puram, the VHP local headquarters, Mani Ram Chawni, the temple of VHP leader and Ram Janmabhoomi Trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, and about half-a-dozen suspected hideouts of VHP activists in and around Ayodhya.
The district administration, which had earlier issued arrest orders against 70 prominent VHP leaders, has now issued warrants against 300 more activists.
The UP police on Saturday also arrested 66 ascetics from Rajasthan who were coming by bus to Ayodhya for the 84-kosi parikrama.
These ascetics were arrested around midnight at the Chauma Shahpur border and sent to jail temporarily.
All borders have been sealed and vehicles are being screened to prevent people from undertaking the march, planned by the VHP to press for the resumption of religious activities at the disputed Ayodhya site believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram.
The local administration has imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code and asked people who have assembled for the march to leave the area.
The state government has directed district officials to set up temporary jails in their areas where the detained seers can be kept.
DGP Devraj Nagar and principal home secretary R.M. Srivastava held video conferencing with concerned officials in the six districts and asked them to strictly impose the ban on the yatra.
The government has decided to deploy 10 companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and 12 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in the region.