8:30 PM update:
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha called off the tractor parade by farmers on Tuesday and appealed to participants to immediately return to their respective protest sites.
Farmers protesting against agricultural reforms breached barricades and clashed in Delhi earlier in the day, prompting the police to fire tear gas at them, shortly after a convoy of tractors trundled through the city’s outskirts.
01:30 PM update:
Tractor rally reaches Red Fort. Visuals on news channels show farmers, along with tractors, trying to enter the fort premises.
01:15 PM update:
Police officials sit on road in Nangloi area of Delhi to block the area where farmers holding tractor parade have reached
1: 05 PM update:
Intense clashes between farmers and policemen at ITO crossing. Even as farmers are being teargassed and baton charged, some farmers with their tractors are still moving towards Red Fort.
12: 55 PM update:
Delhi Police resort to lathicharge at Chintamani Chowk in Shahdara near Ghazipur border, farmers riding tractors push through barricade, news agency PTI reports.
12:51 PM
Situation tense as protesters face off with cops in Delhi, brandish swords and sticks. Police use teargas at ITO crossing to disperse farmers.
12: 30 PM update
Police used tear gas on groups of farmers as they tried to break barricades, cemented barriers with tractors at Delhi’s Mukarba Chowk.
Kasan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti reached Mukarba Chowk from where they were supposed to go towards Kanjhawala but broke the barricades and are now moving towards the ring road.
Windows of at least seven buses and police vehicles broken and reports of attacks on policemen also reported. A tear gas gun was also reportedly snatched.
12: 25 PM update:
Thousands of farmers are knocking down police barricades and have entered Delhi, going beyond the pre-designated and agreed routes, time and the protocol.
Reporters on the ground say that the march is unprecedented and that authorities seem not to have anticipated the kind of numbers and the strength that would venture into the national capital.
As this report was being filed, thousands of tractors were venturing into the capital from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab.
With chaos unfolding during the ruckus, protesters are being baton-charged and tear-gassed by policemen.
Amid celebrations for 72nd Republic Day across the country, farmers were allowed to hold their tractor rally – “Kisaan Parade” – in Delhi after the annual event at the iconic Rajpath. Crowds, however, swelled at the borders at around 8 AM even before the annual celebrations started. Some cops were injured while trying to stop the protesters.
Unprecedented visuals showed chaos unfolding at the Singhu border, which divides Delhi and Haryana and has been the epicentre of protests against the farm laws that began late November. More than 5,000 protesters had gathered at the Singhu border.
In west Delhi near the Tikri border, farmers’ leaders asked the protesters to maintain calm after the march began at around 9 AM.
Thousands were seen marching with flags; rows of tractors were seen on the three routes that were cleared the Delhi Police. A dramatic video from Delhi’s Akshardham showed policemen firing tear gas shells from an overbridge as protesters on road looked for cover.