The Uttar Pradesh government has allowed Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi along with three others to visit Lakhimpur Kheri.
Rahul Gandhi and Chief Ministers Bhupesh Baghel and Charanjit Singh Channi have left for Lucknow, from where they intend to go to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims of the violence. Before leaving, Gandhi said farmers were being “systematically attacked” in the country, and targetted the government for “insulting” them, reports The Indian Express.
Officials said the situation was calm in Lakhimpur Kheri, where the body of 18-year-old Gurvinder Singh was cremated this morning. His family, which alleges he was shot dead, had postponed the cremation yesterday and sought a second post mortem. A special team of four doctors was flown to Lucknow last night, where the second post mortem was conducted. The results are awaited. The bodies of the three other farmers were cremated Tuesday.
In other news, MoS Mishra, who told news agency ANI this morning he was coming to Delhi for “some work”, arrived at the Ministry of Home Affairs in the national capital just after noon.
Farm leaders have given the Uttar Pradesh government a week’s time to arrest Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra, who was allegedly driving one of the three cars which ploughed through a group of farmer protesters in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday. Four farmers were killed in the incident, while four others died in subsequent clashes.
