According to Indian news agencies, Eight people were killed after a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh's northern state, turned violent.
According to sources, during a visit by the state's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra, two SUVs allegedly slammed into a group of demonstrators.
Everything we know
According to Indian news channel NDTV, four of the eight people killed were farmers, two of them being run over by a car in the union minister's convoy.
According to NDTV, the four other people killed were the vehicle's occupants that allegedly crashed into the farmers.
The circumstances surrounding the tragedy are murky, with conflicting accounts of what happened.
Farmers who had gathered in the district to oppose the visit of BJP MPs said the violence began when vehicles in convoy plowed over protesters. Some of the cars were also set on fire, according to images shared on social media.
The government has promised to take action.
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, said he was "saddened" by the violence and promised an investigation and punishment for anybody found to be culpable.
The BJP lawmaker, widely regarded as PM Modi's close ally, made a plea for calm.
Opposition parties, on the other hand, remain suspicious. Authorities in Uttar Pradesh have detained Congress politician Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on her way to see the relatives of four farmers who were killed.
The opposition party had issued a rallying call to followers in Sitapur, where the leader was apprehended.
Farmer unions want to put more pressure on the government.
Late Sunday, a nine-member coordination team from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body representing nearly 40 farmers' unions, spoke to the media, demanding for judicial action against those responsible for the farmers' murders.
They also demanded the expulsion of Mishra, a central minister who had made an explosive speech against farmers a few days before.
After Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP announced three agricultural bills, touting them as a watershed moment for Indian agriculture, protests erupted in September 2020.
According to the government, farmers will be able to sell their products anywhere in the country and engage in contracts with unlicensed purchasers at a pre-determined price.
On the other hand, farmers worry that the legislation will leave smaller farming operations vulnerable and at the mercy of larger corporations. They want the laws to be overturned.
Farmers have been protesting new farming restrictions since September of last year and are expected to reach the national capital of New Delhi in November 2020.
