Lucknow, Oct 17 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday demanded withdrawal of cases against 14,000 people named for "unknown cases" during the Muzaffarnagar riots.

Party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the false criminal cases where a mob was involved were a cause for fear to hundreds who dreaded to go back to their homes.

Accusing the Samajwadi Party government of trying to "keep the Muzaffarnagar incidents alive" for political concerns, Pathak said, "Even after 50 days the state government has failed to bring back normalcy to the region."

Women from 12 villages were forced to hold a panchayat two days back to address the issue, he added.

According to officials as many as 250 cases have been registered against 10,000 people in Muzaffarnagar and 4,000 in Meerut and Shamli.

While police said that special investigating teams (SITs) were doing their jobs and acting upon people involved in rioting and letting the innocent go, villagers allege that police are hounding them endlessly.