Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday spoke about the lynching of the BJP workers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri was only a “reaction to the action”.
For the unversed, two BJP workers, a driver in the employ of Union minister Ajay Misra, and a local reporter died along with four farmers in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that took place on October 3.
“The killing of two BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri after a convoy of cars ran over four farmers is a reaction to an action. I do not consider those involved in the killings as guilty (of a crime),” Tikait told reporters at a press conference – attended by other farmer union leaders – in Delhi.
On Thursday Tikait demanded the “immediate arrest (of the) culprits of the Lakhimpur massacre”.
This was a day after he described those who ran over farmers as “cold-hearted people”, tweeting, “Those who crushed people to death cannot be men… they are ‘cold-hearted’ people.”
He had also given the UP government a week’s notice to arrest Ashish Mishra, who is Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son and has been named as a murder accused in the FIR in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
Meanwhile, activist Yogendra Yadav informed on Saturday that the Samyukta Kisan Morcha will start Shaheed Kisan Kalash Yatra from Lakhimpur on October 12. “We appeal to every citizen to light five candles outside their homes at 7pm on October 12,” he said during a press conference.