IN THE WORLD TODAY

Farming protests take violent turn

TENS of thousands of protesting farmers have driven long lines of tractors into India’s capital, breaking through police barricades, defying tear gas and storming the historic Red Fort as the nation celebrated Republic Day.

Thousands more marched on foot or rode on horseback while shouting slogans against prime minister Narendra Modi. At some places, they were showered with flower petals by residents who recorded the unprecedented rally on their phones.

Leaders of the farmers said more than 10,000 tractors joined the protest.

Police said one protester had died after his tractor overturned, but farmers said he was shot. Television channels showed several bloodied protesters.

Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at numerous places to push back the rows of tractors, which shoved aside concrete and steel barricades.

Authorities blocked roads with large trucks and buses in an attempt to stop the farmers from reaching the centre of the capital, but thousands managed to reach some important landmarks.

Officials also shut some metro train stations, and mobile internet service was suspended in some parts of the capital.

For nearly two months, farmers – many of them Sikhs from Punjab and Haryana states – have camped at the edge of the capital, blockading highways connecting with the country’s north in a rebellion that has rattled the government.

They are demanding the withdrawal of new laws which they say will commercialise agriculture and devastate farmers’ earnings. it