Kairana residents rebuff mass exodus allegations, accuse politicos of brewing unrest

The residents of Kairana village in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district today staged a protest against rumours of mass exodus of Hindu families and alleged that the leaders of various political parties were making communal statements for electoral benefits.

Raising slogans of unity during their protest, the locals here said that some people are making desperate attempts to ruin the image of this village.

"Hukum Singh will be seen enjoying with the Muslims at the time of Eid, and in Holi and Diwali with us; he is a double faced man. Hindus and Muslims have been living here inpeace and love and will continue to do so," said one of the protestors.

"All this is being done in the wake of the Uttar Pradesh elections. The people have been migrating from the village from the past two years and the reason behind this is that there are no employment opportunities here, the law and order condition in the village is very bad. The politicians want to instigate riots, but this will not happen," said a Hindu protestor.

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stood by its claims and continued to target the Samajwadi Party Government in the state.

"We are here to help the needy. Go and ask the government why such situation has occurred," said BJP MP Satish Gautam.

"Look at the attitude of the government; they know that an eight-member team has arrived to review the situation but look at the poor response. There is no law and order in the state. If the state government had put a check on the law, no migration would have taken place. Because the state government did not prosecute the culprits, the situation in the village has become worse," added BJP MP Satyapal.

An eight-member BJP team arrived in Kairana earlier in the day to review the situation in the village.

Hukum Singh, who had earlier reportedly said that the Hindus were being forced to leave their homes in the Muslim-majority town in Kairana, has now backtracked from his claims.

He has said that the "migration" of Hindus from Kairana was "not communal" in nature, adding that people are leaving the region due to law and order problems and threats by goons.

According to reports, the police have ordered a probe into the alleged migration after Singh presented a list of 346 families from the Muslim-majority village while claiming that they had to leave their homes after attacks and extortion attempts.