At one location, seven bodies of the troops were recovered and the tree trunks bore bullet shots, indicating that a fierce gun battle took place in the area.
Badal's mortal remains were taken to the family's farmland, around a kilometer from his residence, on a flower-decked tractor-trolley with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and other family members standing with folded hands as the vehicle moved past the mourners on the route.
Army and air force contingents have been rushed in to assist in relief and rescue operations.
Police said they will not allow the farmers protesting against the Centre's new farm laws to enter Delhi if they reach the borders of the national capital.
According to Japanese financial services major Nomura, despite slowing external demand, the domestic growth cycle is improving.
The Maoists rained bullets from light machine guns and used low-intensity improvised explosive devices to mount the attack that went on till evening.
Even media persons covering the agitation manage to reach the protest sites with difficulty as they first have to pass through checking and then cross multiple layers of barricading. A Bharatiya Kisan Union office-bearer at Ghazipur border, which now resembles a highly-secured fortress, said despite the odds, supporters from far-off places are reaching the site to express solidarity with farmers.
Police resorted to lathicharge for a brief time to control protesters who broke barricades. Hours later, they were granted permission to enter Delhi and stage a peaceful protest at Nirankari ground in Burari.
Pansare, who was shot at and critically wounded by unidentified assailants outside his housing society after returning from a morning walk on February 16, succumbed to his injuries at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai late Friday night.
Farmers protesting the Centre's three farm laws on Saturday blocked the six-lane Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway at some places in Haryana to mark the completion of 100 days of their agitation at the Delhi borders.
Cold wave continued unabated in the northern region today with fog enveloping most areas affecting transport services, even as three persons died and over 25 were injured in different fog-related accidents.
Not carrying weapons, following fixed routes and entering Delhi with tractors sans trolleys, were among the several conditions set by farmer leaders and police that were violated by participants of the tractor parade in New Delhi on Tuesday.
It is likely the government will divide the country into different zones during the proposed extended period of lockdown and might permit a few services to function in safe zones.
The World Bank on Tuesday projected India's economy to grow at 8.3 per cent in 2021 and 7.5 per cent in 2022, even as its recovery is being hampered by an unprecedented second wave of the COVID-19, the largest outbreak in the world since the beginning of the deadly pandemic. The Washington-based global lender, in its latest issue of Global Economic Prospects released here, noted that in India, an enormous second COVID-19 wave is undermining the sharper-than-expected rebound in activity seen during the second half of Fiscal Year 2020/21, especially in services.
The locals demanded that farmers vacate the Singhu border protest site as they had "insulted" the national flag during their tractor parade on Republic Day.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that decision to challenge the grant of bail by the Allahabad high court to Ashish Mishra is pending consideration before the relevant authorities.
Farmer outfits on Friday started mobilising more batches of peasants from Haryana and Punjab to head towards Delhi's borders to join the ongoing agitation against agri laws, even as political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal threw their weight behind them.
UP government suspended four staffers and ordered a departmental probe into the incident.
Police said farmers have been allowed to hold peaceful protest at the Nirankari Ground in north Delhi.
'If a company contracts to buy its produce after three or four months, is there any loss in it?'
'Scuffle' between wrestlers protesting at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, police personnel
'Had they agreed to our demands that we raised two years ago, we would have never started our agitation again.'
Armed with hope and a revolutionary poem by noted Punjabi poet 'Pash', a farmer cycled nearly 400 km from Fardikot to the Tikri border to join the massive protest by peasants against the new farm laws.
Thousands of farmers have reached the national capital on their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles, responding to the 'Delhi Chalo' call against the agri-marketing laws enacted at the Centre in September. On Saturday morning, it wasn't clear if they will agree to move to the Burari ground on the outskirts of the city, where police said they can continue with their protest. Many protesters were demanding a better venue in the centre of Delhi. Originally, the protest was meant to be on November 26 and 27.
In May, Satpal Singh, who runs a dairy business with three buffaloes in Jewar, near Noida, was worried about the steep spike in input costs. Singh said dry fodder rates, which cost Rs 1,500-2000 per tractor trolley last year, were quoting at Rs 4,500-5,000. The price of other cattle feed ingredients (that include mustard meal and similar mixes) had also gone up from Rs 2,000 per quintal to Rs 3,100-3,200 per quintal.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
Farmer leaders on Saturday said the protesting unions stand firm on their demand of a complete repeal of the three agri laws and asserted that they are ready for talks with the government, but that should be held without any condition.
Behind the movement are shock-workers functioning quietly to ensure that a seemingly spontaneous, apolitical, grassroots mobilisation sustains itself without dribbling into chaos or violence. Sai Manish lists some of them.
Let the implementation of reforms be left to the discretion of individual states and ensure an end to the illogical stir, argues Virendra Kapoor.
'As of now, it is hard to see how the stalemate can be broken.' 'For the Sikh Jat farmers who constitute the core of the protest are a simple-minded but stubborn lot. 'They are unlikely to call off the stir unless provided a sense of 'victory'.' 'Give them a reason to boast that they brought the government to its knees and they will start singing hallelujahs to the Modi government,' argues Virendra Kapoor.
There had been few signs of social distancing as thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana began their protest last week against the three new agro-marketing laws, setting off on a march to the national capital.
The UP government has deployed additional police, including over 1,000 personnel of anti-riot forces, and ordered multiple probes -- by SIT, ADG-Intelligence -- and a magisterial inquiry.
As per state government statistics, 26 patients had died at the GMCH during the wee hours of Tuesday, followed by 21 on Wednesday, 15 on Thursday and 13 on Friday (total 75).
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that social distancing and staying indoors were the only ways to deal with the fast-spreading coronavirus, pictures and videos of people standing in circles and squares to buy essential items like groceries and milk in many states went viral.
Fear and uncertainty have returned to haunt the residents in areas along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Kashmir, where heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan Rangers has triggered migration.
Two gangsters involved in the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala were eliminated in an encounter by the Punjab police in Amritsar on Wednesday, an officer said.
"Centre and state will soon begin the process of giving reservation, following the Delhi High court order," Khattar told reporters in a joint press conference along with All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti chairperson Yashpal Malik.
The minimum temperature plunged to 4.2 degrees Celsius in New Delhi on Monday, the coldest December 22 in the last five years and also the lowest this season, even as a thick blanket of fog disrupted normal life in the city and hit flight and train operations.
With the protesting farmers staying put at the border point of the national capital for over six weeks now, a number of small business have sprung up at the site, the newest being sale of pro-protest badges and stickers.
The two-day rally will be one of the largest congregations of farmers in Delhi, the AIKSCC has claimed.
