Thousands of protesting farmers swarmed the historic Red Fort on Tuesday and hoisted flags on the lower ramparts of the historic landmark.
The protesting farmers' tractor march reached the Red Fort after clashing with police at several locations where barricades were put up to stop the rally.
A large group of farmers thronged the Red Fort carrying the tricolours and farmer union flags in their hands. A few youths even climbed up the flagpole on the 17th century landmark and put up a saffron-coloured "nishaan sahib".
Several Twitter users claimed that the flag put up by the farmers was a Khalistani flag. It must be clarified that the flag waved by the protesters was "nishaan sahib", a triangular flag that represents Sikhism.
Visuals from the spot showed farmers swarming the Red Fort even as hundreds of others played a cat-and-mouse game with Delhi Police personnel near the ITO intersection in central Delhi.
The farmers, who started their 'Kisan Gantantra parade' much ahead of their scheduled timing entered the national capital defying the agreement of the scheduled time of tractor rally and creating multiple fronts at Karnal Bypass, Mukarba Chowk, Transport Nagar, Akshardham, Gazipur and Tikri border and some farmers armed with swords were also seen clashing with the police.
The police fired tear-gas shells and lathi-charged the protesters on multiple occasions as farmers remained adamant to move towards the Red Fort.
Later, Rapid Action Force was also deployed at the ITO intersection.
The farmers, after confrontation with police that lasted for around 40 minutes, moved towards Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, which houses the offices of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
(With IANS inputs)
