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Updated: Jan 04, 2020 22:13 IST

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday made several stops in western Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar to meet the families of those who died or were injured during last month’s violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The party’s general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh will also meet the relatives of those killed in Meerut during the protests on December 20 outside the city after she was denied permission to enter.

Congress’ Meerut city unit president Jahid Ansari said she will speak to the families of the five victims at Bypass Road on her way back to Delhi.

Priyanka Gandhi arrived in Muzaffarnagar in the morning and met Maulana Asad Hussaini, who runs Madarsa Hoz E Ilmia near Meenakshi Chowk, where violence erupted during the anti-CAA protests.

After her meeting with Hussaini and other victims, she said all of them accused the police of unleashing a reign of terror and thrashing them for no fault of their fault. She said the police entered the madarsa and beat up the maulana and his students.

“I met Maulana Asad Hussaini, who was brutally thrashed by the police. Students of the madarsa, including minors, were picked up by the police without any reason. Some of them some have been released and some are still in custody,” she said while speaking to reporters.

Priyanka Gandhi also went to the house of Noor Mohammad who lost his life during the protests. She spoke with his seven-month pregnant widow and one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

She also met Rukaiya, who will be getting married on Saturday, and said the police vandalised her house and damaged things bought for her wedding.

She said she has given a memorandum to Governor Anandiben Patel incorporating the high-handedness of the police during the protests.

“Priyanka Gandhi reiterated she and her Congress party are committed to standing by the victims and their families and will go to each and every place where injustice has done to people,” Harendra Tyagi, Muzaffarnagar’s district unit president, said.

Priyanka and her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had tried to visit the victims’ families in Meerut in the last week of December but were denied permission and compelled to return from outskirts of the city.

She has been meeting the families of those injured, killed or arrested during the violent protests against the act including Lucknow and Bijnore.

More than 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in Uttar Pradesh as police and protesters clashed last month after the situation spiralled out of control in several areas in the state.