Official Car Hits Protesters, Six Killed In Farmers' Demonstration In India

Illustration of farmers protesting in India. (Wikimedia Commons/Satdeep Gill)

JAKARTA - Six people died when violence broke out in India's Uttar Pradesh State on Sunday, after a car linked to a federal minister rammed into two farmers who were taking part in demonstrations against a controversial Agricultural Reform Act.

The farmer alleged the car belonged to the son of Ajay Mishra, who serves as India's junior interior minister. The two farmers who were hit died, they said.

Mishra said her son was not present in the incident, but a car driven by the driver lost control and hit farmers, after a number of people threw stones at the car and attacked it with sticks and swords.

"If my son was there, he wouldn't have come out alive," Reuters TV partner ANI said, as quoted October 4.

In subsequent clashes, three members of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, a driver and two other farmers were killed, according to party officials and police. Violence broke out in the Lakhimpur Kheri district, about 130 km (81 miles) north of the state capital Lucknow.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office said an investigation was ongoing into the incident.

The incident sparked further protests and road blockades in parts of the state, prompting condemnation on social media from opposition leaders.

A number of national and regional opposition leaders are scheduled to visit the families of the victims on Monday.

In India's longest-running agricultural protest, tens of thousands of farmers have camped for months on the main highway to New Delhi to oppose the Agricultural Reform Act. They say the law will erode the old mechanism that provided farmers with guaranteed minimum prices for their rice and wheat.

Instead, the government said the law would help Indian farmers get better prices.

Protests have been gaining momentum in Uttar Pradesh ahead of state assembly elections next year, with a group of influential peasant leaders increasing pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to overturn the law.