Bareilly: Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat and others were stopped by the district administration at the Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand border as they arrived here on their way to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims of violence during a farmers’ protest that left eight people dead.

They made attempts to enter Bareilly but due to the deployment of heavy police force, failed, said the official sources, Rawat was requested to proceed only with his security men but he did not relent and subsequently, went back to Uttarakhand.

We were going to meet the families of the farmers who lost their lives in this struggle for their democratic rights but were not allowed. Whoever raises his voice for his rights will either be killed or put in jail, the Congress leader said, stating that such atrocities did not take place even during the British era.