Judicial Report Labels Sambhal Violence a Pre-Planned Conspiracy

A judicial inquiry commission concluded that the November 24, 2024, communal violence in Sambhal was a "calculated criminal conspiracy" designed to block a court-ordered survey of the disputed Jama Masjid-Hari Har Mandir site. The report, tabled in the Uttar Pradesh assembly on August 6, 2026, states the unrest was not a spontaneous reaction but a pre-planned effort to incite riots, resulting in four deaths and numerous injuries.

Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, indicated that the findings reveal a conspiracy to mobilize the community through false information. The commission specifically linked Samajwadi Party MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq and Suhail Iqbal, son of SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood, to the events. The panel also noted that police did not fire the bullets that caused the fatalities and reported that hooligans attempted to loot police weapons during the chaos.

The findings have triggered political disputes. Zia-ur-Rehman Barq dismissed the report as "wrong" and expressed intent to challenge the conclusions in court. Conversely, BJP MLA Rajesh Chaudhary defended the report as "fact-based." Ajay Rai, the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief, argued that if a conspiracy had indeed been planned, it highlighted a significant failure of state intelligence agencies.