Tens of thousands of farmers who stormed Delhi's historic Red Fort are again camped outside the capital after the most volatile day of their two-month stand-off left one protester dead and more than 80 police officers injured.
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The protests demanding the repeal of new agricultural laws have grown into a rebellion that is rattling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
On Tuesday, India's Republic Day, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands more people on foot or horseback tried to advance into the capital, shoving aside barricades and buses blocking their path and at times met by police using tear gas and water cannons.
Their brief takeover of the 17th-century fort played out live on India's TV news channels.
In a profoundly symbolic challenge to Modi's Hindu-nationalist government, the protesters hoisted a Sikh religious flag.
"The situation is normal now. The protesters have left the streets of the capital," New Delhi police officer Anto Alphonse said on Wednesday morning.
Most roads were reopened to vehicles by midnight on Tuesday, hours after the protest organiser United Farmers' Front called off the tractor march and accused two outside groups of sabotage by infiltrating their otherwise peaceful movement.
"Even if it was a sabotage, we can't escape responsibility," Yogendra Yadav, a protest leader, said.
He did not say whether the protesters will go ahead with another march planned for February 1 when the Modi government is scheduled to present the annual budget.
Yadav said frustration had built up among the protesting farmers and "how do you control it if the government is not serious about what they have been demanding for two months".
The farmers - many of them Sikhs from Punjab and Haryana states - tried to march into Delhi in November but were stopped by police.
Since then they have hunkered down at the edge of the city and threatened to besiege it if the farm laws are not repealed.
Police said 86 personnel were injured in clashes with farmers, and one protester died after his tractor overturned. Farmers said he was shot.
Several bloodied protesters could be seen in television footage.
Police said the protesting farmers broke away from the approved protest routes and resorted to "violence and vandalism".
The government insists the agricultural laws passed in September will benefit farmers and boost production through private investment.
But the farmers fear it will turn the agricultural industry corporate and leave them behind.
Australian Associated Press
