New Delhi: Thousands of farmers clashed with the police while entering Delhi on Tuesday morning as they organized a tractor rally in protest against the three farm laws. As the policemen lathi-charged and tear-gassed the farmers, there was chaos and disarray when the farmers took out of the rally before the time given by the police. They were officially allowed to hold rally between 12 noon and 5 pm after the Republic Parade at Rajpath was out of the way. The farmers not only started earlier than expected, they also deviated from the agreed routes.
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Repeated pleas ignored
Farmers gathered at the borders of Delhi early in the morning. By 8 am, there was a big crowd. Some policemen who tried to stop the protestors were injured in the melee. A police bus was hijacked by the agitating farmers in Central Delhi. At Singhu borders the farmers had broken the barriers and created law and order situation. Though the farm leaders have been saying that the rally would be peaceful, they don’t seem to have the situation under their control. In spite of their repeated appeals not to breach the barriers, the protestors went ahead with their aggressive postures. While the protestors hurled stones at the policemen, the police were seen firing tear gas shells.
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Pakistan’s Twitter war
The police have been quoting intelligence sources saying that Pakistani agents have been busy creating sleeping cells in Delhi to create violence during the tractors rally. “Over 300 Twitter handles have been generated from Pakistan during January 13 to 18 to disrupt the tractor rally by farmers only by misleading people,” said the police. They also spoke about the involvement of Pakistan’s secret agency, ISI (Inter-Services intelligence).
Talks were not fruitful
The Union government which opposed the rally initially had given permission to the farmers to hold tractor demonstration after the parade cleared the main routes. The government represented by ministers had talks for eleven rounds with farmers’ representative. But no breakthrough was achieved. When the ministers said they would keep the farm laws in abeyance, the framers’ leader asked them to commit the same thing in writing. The government is yet to respond.
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