Rahul visits Muzaffarnagar camps; shown black flags

Visited all three camps, Gandhi asked the refugees why they were not returning to their villages. He was accompanied by Madhusudan Mistri, general secretary and UP in-charge, and R P N Singh, MoS home, and stayed for around 10 minutes in the three camps.

‘Our life is not safe in the village,’ the displaced people told Gandhi as he heard them and asked questions about prevailing condition in the camps.

Gandhi said those engineering these communal riots want them to remain in the camps as such a situation ‘benefits’ them. ‘They want to keep you away from your villages. Arrangements should be made to take you back to the village where you can live in peace,’ he said.

Gandhi, however, faced major protest when hundred of Samajwadi Party supporters raised slogan against him and waved black flags. The SP supporters questioned why Congress leaders came so late. They also protested against the controversial statement of Gandhi when he had said that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was in touch with the youths of Muzaffarnagar after the riots. SP leaders said that Congress was doing politics over riot victims.