Making a grand entry for next year's Maha Kumbh, the saints and sages of Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara arrived in the city on Sunday in royal style for the festival to be held on the banks of the Sangam in Prayagraj.
The drive is being carried out in compliance with a directive issued by the state chief minister in the wake of murder of sadhus in the recent past.
The ongoing Kumbh Mela in Haridwar has been shortened this year to just one month from April 1 to 30 due to Covid.
'In the last four days, four sadhus were killed in UP and one in Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, the priest was burned to death. Nothing happened,' he said.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, in an apparent taunt at the BJP, had said the killing of priests in Uttar Pradesh should not be communalised like the Palghar incident.
Days earlier, Yogi Adityanath had made a similar phone call to Thackeray over the lynching of two sadhus in Palghar.
The sadhus had been identified as 55-year-old Jagandas and 35-year-old Sevadas. The murder came to light when people reached the temple on Tuesday morning and saw the blood-soaked bodies, according to police.
Sadhus from several ashrams refused to take a holy bath in Ganga on the occassion of Vijayadashmi near Shukertal area…
