Dramatic scenes were witnessed on Tuesday after the agitating farmers clashed with the Delhi Police near ITO, with the police firing the tear gas shells and carrying out baton charges to disperse them.
As soon as the farmers reached the ITO intersection and tried to move towards the Red Fort, many of the farmers clashed with the police personnel and attacked them with sticks and iron rods. The farmers also damaged several vehicles with their tractors.
The farmers, who started their tractor parade much ahead of their scheduled timing, entered the national capital defying the agreement reached with the police and created multiple fronts at Karnal Bypass, Mukarba Chowk, Transport Nagar, Akshardham, Gazipur and Tikri border. Some farmers armed with swords were also seen clashing with the police.
"We were deployed at Red Fort when many people entered there. We tried to remove them from the rampart of the fort but they became aggressive....We didn't want to use force against farmers so we exercised as much restraint as possible," PC Yadav, SHO Wazirabad said in a video statement.
"They were violent and had all kinds of weapons," Station House Officer Baljeet Singh said in a video statement that has been used to file at least one of the 22 cases naming numerous farmers' union leaders for the violence that left over 300 policemen injured.
Meanwhile, farmers have blamed "anti-social elements" for the violence and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a federation of 40 farmer unions, has dissociated itself from the chaos and appealed for calm.
Late Tuesday, after a meeting with senior police and government officials, Home Minister Amit Shah (to whom Delhi Police reports) ordered extra paramilitary forces to be positioned in the city.