Protesting farmers hold fort at Delhi-UP border, reject govt's assurances

Thousands of farmers held fort at the Delhi-UP border here Tuesday after police stopped their protest march to the national capital with several including the security personnel getting injured in sporadic violence, as the protesters refused to go back and rejected the government's assurance to look into their demands.

While the Opposition blamed the Modi government for what they called a "brutal police action" against farmers on way to Rajghat on Gandhi Jayanti for a peaceful protest, the police said it used "minimal force" to disperse the crowd and to maintain law and order in the national capital.

The protesters, many of whom said they have come from as far as Haridwar over 200 kms away after a week-long march, appeared ready to stay put at the border with hundreds of tractors and trolleys with food, water, mattresses and even generators parked alongside the roads for over a kilometre of distance.

The protesters, which included women and elderly men as well, tried jumping ...