Muzaffarnagar riots worse than in Gujarat: Rashid Alvi

Congress leader Rashid Alvi Thursday said the Muzaffarnagar communal violence was worse than the 2002 Gujarat riots and blamed the Uttar Pradesh government for it. "The Muzaffarnagar riots are worse than the 2002 Gujarat riots," Alvi told IANS. "It is the responsibility of the UP government."

Alvi, a Rajya Sabha member, said he visited a relief camp Thursday morning across the Loni border but was then stopped by police. "I visited a relief camp in Loni. But the police arrived there, took me to the Loni police station and said they had orders from Lucknow not to let me go beyond that point," Alvi said.

According to the Congress leader, who had visited Gujarat camps in 2002, there are around 50,000 displaced persons in six to seven relief camps in the Muzaffarnagar area. "More people have been killed than the government figure. The toll could be over 100," he said.

Alvi said many of around 2,000 people in the Loni camp narrated their woes to him. "There have been no FIRs though family members of many people have been killed. Around 73 people who had been sent back to their village by the police have returned to the camp as they don't feel safe there," he said.