Three Samajwadi Party (SP) parliamentarians, including its Sambhal MP, were stopped from entering the violence-hit district, as the the administration on Saturday extended the ban on the entry of outsiders into Sambhal to December 10 to maintain “peace and order”. The administration’s earlier ban on the entry of outsiders was to expire on Saturday.

SP’s Muzaffarnagar MP Harendra Malik, accompanied by its Kairana and Sambhal MPs, was stopped from entering Sambhal from Ghaziabad. “I don’t understand why we are being stopped. Are the Opposition leader and the MPs so irresponsible that they can’t be allowed to move within the state?” Malik said.