En route to Saharanpur, Rahul welcomed by Cong workers in Har

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today met the party's Haryana unit chief Ashok Tanwar at Kurukshetra while on his way to strife-torn Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi, en route to Saharanpur district, halted at many places in Haryana including Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar where he was given rousing welcome by the party workers there.

Tanwar said he was attending a party programme in Kurukshetra and when Rahul passed through the town.

He received the Congress vice-president and had a brief chat with him.

Hitting out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Tanwar said, "The voice of the poor, Dalits and Adivasis of this country cannot be suppressed. Trying to stop Gandhi from reaching out to the victims of the violence is akin to crushing democratic rights of the citizens." Gandhi today met the victims of Saharanpur caste clashes and their family members at the district's border after authorities denied him permission to visit the violence-hit area in Uttar Pradesh.

The district administration had refused permission for a visit by him to the violence-hit zone and he was stopped at the Saharanpur border by officials amid elaborate security arrangements.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, one person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes in which houses of Dalits in Shabbirpur village were allegedly torched by Thakurs.

About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9.

On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded, following which the government had suspended the senior superintendent of police and district magistrate and transferred the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police.

The Centre has sent 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the district administration restore peace in the region.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)