LIVE: UP govt asks police officers to end farmers' protests in state

Farmers' protest LIVE updates Day 64: The Ghaziabad administration has given an ultimatum to protesting farmers to vacate UP Gate by Thursday midnight or else they would be removed, according to PTI report. 

The crowd at the protest sites in Delhi's Singhu and Tikri borders was visibly thin two days after the tractor parade turned violent, even though the farmer unions said it was because the protesters, who had come to the national capital to take part in January 26 march, have returned home.

Delhi Police today issued lookout notices against farmer leaders named in an FIR in connection with the violence during the farmers' tractor parade on Republic Day and invoked sedition charges in a case of the Red Fort incident as the force intensified its investigation. The Delhi Police Crime Branch will investigate the cases of violence at the Red Fort, ITO and seven other places during the farmers' tractor parade on Republic Day.

Farmer leaders Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav and Darshan Pal and social activist Medha Patkar were among the 37 people named by the Delhi police in an FIR on the violence during the tractor parade that includes attempt to murder charge even as two farmer unions on Wednesday said they are withdrawing from the protests against the farm laws.
 

The leaders of the main farmer unions alleged there was a conspiracy behind the violence and demanded a probe as they continued to allege that "anti-social" elements had perpetrated the violence to "torpedo" their peaceful agitation. They said their agitation against the farm laws will continue and public meetings and hunger strikes will be held across the country on January 30.

Meanwhile, two pleas were filed in the Supreme Court over the tractor rally violence with one seeking setting up of a commission, headed by a retired apex court judge, to inquire into the incident while the other urged it to direct the media not to declare farmers as "terrorist" without any evidence.