UP violence: Normalcy returns yet patrolling on

LIFE returned to normalcy in Lakhimpur Kheri in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where eight people lost their lives in a violence on Sunday (3). Traffic was found to be regular on the streets and shops opened, Press Trust of India reported. However, security personnel were still seen patrolling the roads along the road to Tikonia village where the violence broke out.

Internet services, which remained suspended in the wake of the violence, were also restored.

ALSO READ: BJP parliamentarian condemns mowing down of farmers

It all started when farmers protesting the arrival of the state’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya alleged that some of their colleagues were run over by a car which had Ashish Mishra, the son of the Indian minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra. Both the minister and his son denied the charges. A video was widely shared on social media showing a car mowing down people on the roads but the police were yet to verify it. Four farmers were killed in the incident.

The protesters then hit back by pulling out four persons from the car and thrashed them to death, taking the toll to eight.

Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrested

The violence had a deep political repercussion since a number of opposition leaders, including Indian National Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were either detained or arrested after they tried to reach the spot to meet the kin of the victims.

Minister Mishra later told Indian news channel NDTV that the car which mowed down four farmers belonged to him (it was later set on fire) but reiterated that his son Ashish was not in it at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was set to visit Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday (6) along with a team to meet the families of the deceased, the party announced.

Charanjit Singh Channi, who recently took over as the chief minister of Punjab, met Indian home minister Amit Shah at the latter’s residence on Tuesday. He said the central government’s controversial agricultural laws, against which the farmers have been protesting across various northern Indian states, need to be repealed.