Shahjahanpur, 24 March (HS): Statues

of Kakori train action martyrs were allegedly toppled with a bulldozer during

road building work in Shahjahanpur, causing fury among opposition parties,

notably the Samajwadi Party (SP), who demanded action against those involved on

Tuesday. The statues of independence

warriors Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Roshan Singh were put along a

road outside the Shahjahanpur Municipal Corporation headquarters, and they were

often garlanded by visiting public officials. They were supposedly demolished

on Sunday evening. A video purporting to show the sculptures being demolished

and their pieces thrown in a landfill was shared on social media, eliciting

strong reactions. According to municipal officials, the destruction was carried

out by a contractor that works in road building and beautification.

After

being deconstructed, statue remnants were reportedly buried to a rubbish

disposal facility, and plaques put at the site were likewise removed using a

bulldozer. Attempts to reach the municipal commissioner and district magistrate

for comment were fruitless. Tanveer

Khan, Samajwadi Party (SP) district president, said that the sculptures were

removed to remove a plaque containing his name, which had been put during his

stint as municipal chairman. He described the move as a insult to the

martyrs and accused the administration of behaving arbitrarily. In

response to the event, SP president Akhilesh Yadav stated that beautifying can

never take precedence above reverence for sacrifices. In a post shared on

social media site X, he blasted the demolition, calling it a manifestation of a

troubling attitude.

Ajay

Rai, the Uttar Pradesh Congress chairman, requested harsh action against those

guilty for the destruction. If justice is not delivered, every single

Congressman will march to the streets to fiercely fight this dictatorship, he

stated in a post on X. Rai said that the BJP government's municipal

corporation ran bulldozers over the statues of great sacrificers like Pandit

Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, and Thakur Roshan Singh. This is a

direct attack on every heroic martyr who sacrificed their lives for the

country's freedom, as well as the feelings of 145 crore Indians. The Yogi

government must take swift action against the accountable authorities. Meanwhile,

a grandson of Ashfaqulla Khan condemned the conduct and promised to resist it.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi