Farmers protest

Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said: "We demand that MoS Home Ajay Mishra should be sacked immediately while while government should constitute enquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme court."

Protests on farm laws in the UP district took a violent turn as unidentified persons opened fire at the farmers.Infuriated farmers set three jeeps on fire after some of the protestors were run over by the vehicles. One of the vehicles is said to belong to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home, Ajay Mishra Teni.Farmers have refused to allow post-mortem examinations of the deceased. They have said that they will decide the future course of action only after talking to their leaders

A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said: "You cannot come to the court and at the same time continue with protest."

Not the landholdings but it is the procurement under Minimum Support Price (MSP) that is the driving issue of the whole agitation and because farmers from Punjab, Haryana, parts of Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh benefit more from MSP, they are the most vocal, according to experts.

Denying that farmers only from western Uttar Pradesh are participating in this protest, he said, "Farmers from all over India are with us," adding that this movement is not just restricted to any one region.

The deceased farmer, identified as Baghel Ram, 55, was a resident of Khela village in Punjab and was a member of Kirti Kisan Union (KKU). Another KKU member Raghuveer Singh said that Baghel Ram was not keeping well for some time and was taking rest in his tent.

Traffic across Punjab and Haryana is likely to hit badly and see traffic disruptions for several hours as farmers, farm labourers, commission agents, trade and employee unions and activists of political parties squatted on national highways till 4 p.m.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Balbir Singh Rajewal told the media here after the day-long deliberations with the political parties, except the BJP, that they had told the political parties not to hold big rallies till elections in the state are announced. "The rallies not only divert people from the 'morcha', but also divides the people along political lines and could threaten the morcha of farmers against the three agriculture laws," he said.

Talking to IANS, a city business owner Guljar Singh said, "The local administration has restored the Internet services and now we hope that they will also consider the farmers' demands also." Jairnal Singh, a farmer at the protesting site, said, "The restoration of the Internet is not enough, we are fighting here for our genuine demand to sack officer Ayush Sinha and give compensation to the farmer who died in the incident."

The Kisan Mahapanchayat was organised to demand an FIR and strict action against SDM Ayush Sinha, who on August 28 had instructed the police to beat the protesting farmers. A video-clip of Sinha ordering the force to hit the farmers had stirred a row after it went viral on social media.