Protesters removed from Red Fort premises by police

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Police removed protesting farmers from Red Fort premises on Tuesday where they had barged in after deviating from their planned route for the tractor parade and hoisted flags at the iconic monument in the national capital.

Chaos reigned for nearly 90 minutes as some protesters, including ‘Nihangs’ (traditional Sikh warriors), forced their way into the Red Fort and hoisted a flag from the staff from which the prime minister unfurls the tricolour on Independence Day.

The police later resorted to lathi-charge to vacate the Red Fort premises.

Continuous announcements were being made asking the protesters to leave the complex peacefully.

Earlier, the farmers had deviated from the designated route for the proposed tractor parade against the new farm laws and moved toward ITO in central Delhi.

Clashes broke out between police and protesting farmers after the latter reached ITO and tried to push towards Lutyen’s Delhi, prompting the force to use lathicharge and tear gas shells against them.

The farmers began their march from different border points much before the time permitted to them for their tractor rally.

The Delhi Police had permitted the farmers protesting the three farm laws to hold their tractor parade on selected routes only after the official Republic Day parade on the Rajpath concludes.