Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “should shed his ego and arrogance and withdraw the three black laws” over which the farmers have been protesting for several months. Mr Sinha, who was later transferred in a reshuffle, also involving some other IAS officers, has now been posted as the additional secretary in the Citizen Resources Information Department.A day ahead of the mini-secretariat’s proposed gherao, Central forces were deployed, mobile Internet services suspended and prohibitory orders banning gatherings had been imposed in Karnal. Despite this, a sea of farmers and other protesters carrying flags and placards poured through Karnal&China custom arc MMA welder Manufacturers39;s streets to reach the Anaj Mandi for the mahapanchayat. They jumped over some barricades, but there was no other serious confrontation with the police along the way. On their way to the secretariat, some protesters also removed some barricades. We are willing to court arrest,” Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said in a tweet after the talks broke down.During the two-hour talks, the union leaders insisted that an FIR be filed against IAS officer Ayush Sinha, who was the subdivisional magistrate during the police lathicharge. Over 10 # protesters were injured.The protest was organised by the SKM against the lathicharge at Bastara toll plaza on August 28.“Our talks with administration failed as they did not agree to our demands,” senior farm leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan said before the leaders decided to go ahead with their original plan to gherao the mini-secretariat.New Delhi: Locked in a showdown with Haryana’s BJP-led government, a large crowd of farmers squatted at the gates of the Karnal civil headquarters on Tuesday in protest over a lathicharge last month.As farmers gathered at Anaj Mandi, an 11-member delegation was called by the local administration to discuss their demands in a bid to dissuade them from marching towards the secretariat.The gherao began in the evening, hours after farmers from Haryana and the neighbouring states reached Karnal’s New Anaj Mandi for a maha-panchayat. We will sit here peacefully. Deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, Karnal IGP Mamta Singh and SP Ganga Ram Punia were among the officials who took part in the talks with the farm union leaders.

Mr Yadav tweeted that the police had detained farm union leaders briefly but said later that they were all released soon.. The police also used water cannons to stop the farmers from marching towards the district’s mini-secretariat after talks broke down between their leaders and the district administration on their demand for action against officials and police officers involved in the lathicharge. The government’s obstinacy has thwarted three rounds of talks. A video that circulated afterwards showed Mr Sinha asking the policemen to “smash the heads” of the protesters breaking down the barricades. The Haryana police had that day lathicharged a group of farmers disrupting traffic on the national highway while heading to the venue of a BJP meeting. Several farmers and police personnel had been injured in the incident and protesters claimed one farmer had died due to the assault.”As the farmers marched on to the secretariat, the police briefly detained some protesters and even used water cannons to push them back. Despite all obstacles, we have gheraoed the mini-secretariat,” Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Yogendra Yadav announced later.“The Karnal administration doesn’t want to listen to us farmers.In New Delhi, the Congress said Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar must resign if he cannot talk with the protesting farmers.Mr Yadav tweeted: “Like Kauravas’ refusal to part with just five villages, the Khattar government did not even accept the minimum demands of the farmers.As the protesters seemed to settle in for the night, the farmer unions’ leaders said the gherao will continue till their demands are met.Addressing the mahapanchayat earlier, Mr Yadav said: “We have come to ask the government which Constitution, which law gives an IAS officer permission to give orders to break the farmers’ heads… Under which law are the police allowed to carry out a brutal lathicharge, resulting in the death of one and injuries to several others.”The authorities have, however, denied that any farmer died due to the violence on August 28.Soon after the talks failed, the union leaders decided to continue with their decision to gherao the mini-secretariat. They also appealed to the protesters not to indulge in any law and order disruption and in case the police tried to stop them, they should court arrest. Marching on foot from the mahapanchayat venue to the mini-secretariat 5 km away, the farmers faced water cannons as they neared the complex. “The gherao of the mini-secretariat has started. Either the Khattar government must heed our demands, or they should arrest us.The SKM had said a murder case should be registered against IAS officer Ayush Sinha over his alleged “break heads” remark