Keshri Nath Tripathi, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh unit, was today detained by the police near Allahabad while he was going towards the violence-hit district of Gorakhpur.

Tripathi was detained on the Allahabad-Pratapgarh highway in Soraon as a preventive measure and was released later,
senior superintendent of police B D Palson told PTI.

The BJP leader, along with former minister and legislator Narendra Kumar Singh Gaur and other activists blocked traffic on the highway in protest against the Mulayam Singh Yadav government's alleged attempts to 'appease one community while hurting the sentiments of another'.

Protesters yesterday indulged in rampant violence, and torched several vehicles and attempted to set a train on fire, prompting the clamping of curfew in some areas in Gorakhpur. Tension also gripped parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh after a BJP member of Parliament's arrest.

Legislator Yogi Adityanath was arrested on Sunday night.