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New Delhi: Protesting farmers on Tuesday swarmed the Red Fort during a 'tractor rally' on Republic Day amid police attempts to block them from proceeding towards central Delhi, barged into the 17th century monument, climbed up the ramparts and waved farmer union flags and banners and even hoisted a pennant.
All this happened after thousands of farmers riding tractors and motorcycles thronged the otherwise busy ITO intersection and played cat-and-mouse games with police to proceed towards India Gate.
Police and other security personnel deployed at the Red Fort could be seen lathi-charging the protesters at the monument even as the former were clearly outnumbered by the farmers.
A few youths even climbed up the flagpole on the ramparts of the 17th century landmark and put up a saffron pennant with a religious symbol. Later, a few of them even climbed up further and fixed a farmer union flag near the spot where a bigger Tricolour was aflutter.
After sometime, security personnel succeeded in removing the farmers from the fort ramparts, after which they had skirmishes with the police and also chased them that led to injuries to several farmers and policemen.
Soon, the farmers left the spot and moved towards central Delhi.
Earlier, a young farmer died near the ITO intersection in the central Delhi due to unknown reasons. Fellow farmers sat on protest on the spot along with the body of the deceased, who hailed from western Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier in the day, chaos prevailed near the ITO intersection in central Delhi as hundreds of farmers rallied there. Security personnel were clearly outnumbered by the protesters at the spot.
Other video clips showed farmers chasing away policemen on foot as well with tractors, and trying to remove a DTC bus parked across the ITO road stretch by pushing it out of way with a tractor.
The police fired tear-gas shells and lathi-charged the protesters on different occasions as farmers remained adamant to move towards the Red Fort.
Later, Rapid Action Force and the Border Security Force was also deployed at the ITO intersection.
The protesting farmers vandalised DTC bus at ITO in Central Delhi before entering Red Fort.
[caption id="attachment_512756" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
Bus Vandalised In Central Delhi | PC: ANI[/caption]
The farmers, after confrontation with police that lasted for around 40 minutes, moved towards Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, which houses the offices of Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
According to Delhi police reports, two police officers including Additional DCP East Manjeet and a probationer IPS Officer got injured while trying to stop the farmers from breaking the barricades in the morning at Ghazipur border.
Following the undesirable and unacceptable events, internet services was temporarily suspended in the areas of Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri, Mukarba Chowk, Nangloi and their adjoining areas till 11:59 PM today, informed Ministry of Home Affairs.
Almost all the telecom firms in the city were instructed to stop the service until the situation comes under control and further instructions are given.
The instruction was given by the government on the request of Delhi Police that looked helpless in controlling the aggressive farmers who unexpectedly rammed police barricades and moved on towards Red Fort soon after the Republic Day parade concluded.
The telecom operators like Jio, Airtel and Idea alerted their customers through messages about the disrupted Internet services.
"As per the government instructions Internet services have been stopped in your areas till further notice," said a message received from Jio in a particular area where Internet services were barred.
Traffic movement was also closed from Kapashera Chowk to Bijwasan Road and diversion is given for commuters from Kapashera Border and Samalkha T Point. Also, traffic movement was closed from Dwarka More to Uttam Nagar East Metro Station and diversion was given from Dwarka More.
(With IANS Inputs)
