Videos Surface From Lakhimpur Where Eight People Have Died In Violence: One Shows BJP Worker Pleading For His Life

A series of videos from the farmer protest site in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, where at least eight people have died in the violence that broke out on Sunday, have emerged on social media.

One of the videos shows a badly injured and bleeding man pleading for his life.

The man is seen surrounded by a group, most likely farm bill protesters. The group tells the man if it was not true that Teni had sent him to kill them. The man replies that while Teni had indeed sent him, it was not to kill anybody but to check the crowd. The group again coaxes the man to say that Teni had sent him to execute an “accident”. The man denies this. The group then seems to prepare to attack the man because he folds his hands and pleads, “Please spare me, Dada.”

The man is dead. He has been identified as Shyam Sundar Nishad, a BJP worker. Nishad was part of a BJP convoy sent by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ajay Kumar Mishra alias Teni.

The convoy was on its way to welcome UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who was scheduled to attend a separate event in Lakhimpur Kheri.

It’s not clearly known how the driver died. However, it is suspected that he was beaten to death by the group. Another video from the violence does show the protesting crowd beating a man with lathis.

Protesters have said that one of the cars in the convoy deliberately hit the protesters and killed four of them. They allege that the person driving the vehicle was Mishra’s son Ashish. You can watch a video of the moment when the car hits the protesters, here.

Ajay Mishra, who did not eventually go to the venue after hearing of the violence, has said that protesters were pelting his convoy with stones, which resulted in the driver losing balance and accidentally running over them.

On complaint of a protester Jagbir Singh, Ashish Mishra has been booked, along with 20 others, for murder. The state government has ordered a judicial probe.

Of the eight deceased identified so far, four are farm bill protesters namely Nakshatra Singh, Daljeet Singh, Lavepreet Singh and Gurvendra Singh.

Two other people who died on Sunday are BJP workers Hariom Mishra and Shubham Mishra who were part of the minister’s convoy and were beaten to death by protesters. The eight person who has died has been identified as Raman Kashyap, a local journalist.

The UP government has announced Rs 45 lakh each to the kin of four protesters who died. It is not known yet what compensation has been decided for the rest.