NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands Indian farmers fought street battles with police across the Indian Capital city New Delhi as they took protests against agriculture reforms into the capital during a giant Republic Day military parade.
Police laid on one of their biggest security operations in years in a bid to keep demonstrators away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government and military leaders.
But after barging through barricades on main roads into the city, convoys of farmers on tractors took over Delhi landmarks and debris-strewn streets were left in clouds of tear gas.
One farmer was killed in what police said was an accident after his tractor overturned. Police said they suffered “many” casualties but gave no figures.
At the 400-year-old Red Fort, farmers put up their own emblem on the flagpole where Indian tricolour normally flies on national days. They were chased out by security forces.
Hundreds fought police outside the Delhi police headquarters. All over the city, security forces fired tear gas and staged baton charges. But the farmers also laid into police with branches and metal bars and hijacked buses that had been used to block their convoys.
As night fell, authorities cut internet and phone links in the areas on the edge of Delhi where the farmers have set up their camps.
Two months of protests against agricultural laws that deregulated produce markets have turned into the biggest challenge faced by Modi s Hindu nationalist government since it came to power six years ago.
The government had opposed the rally saying it would be a “national embarrassment” on Republic Day. Police allowed the demonstration if farmers waited until after the military parade and kept to a route away from central Delhi.
But the security was breached while Modi and other dignitaries watched tanks and troops pass along the Rajpath boulevard while newly acquired Rafale fighter jets flew overhead.
Modii waved to crowds and was driven back to his residence barely 30 minutes before the fleets of tractors took over the centre.
Tens of thousands of farmers have camped on the outskirts of the capital since November, protesting against the new laws which the government says will boost rural incomes.
Read more: Indian farmers ride flag-bedecked tractors in Republic Day protest
