Police detain Rahul Gandhi from entering violence-hit Mandsaur 

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was detained and taken into preventive custody before he could enter Mandsaur. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi rode pillion on a motorcycle and walked some distance to reach Mandsaur from Rajasthan's Chittorgarh district on Thursday morning.

As he made his way to the epicentre of the farmers' protest, the local police in Madhya Pradesh made it clear that he will not be allowed to enter the district. Congressmen in several vehicles were accompanying Gandhi. Gandhi tried to break past the police barricade to enter Madhya Pradesh and was detained by the police.

The Congress yesterday termed as “cold-blooded murder” the killing of five farmers in police firing and questioned the prime minister's silence over it. The Congress accused the BJP of “acting as a curse of death for Indian farmers”. Madhya Pradesh government maintains that the state is peaceful and Congress is playing politics over the issue.

The state Home Minister Bhupendra Singh has now admitted that the farmers died due to police firing. He reportedly told news agency ANI: “Death of the five farmers was due to police firing. It has been established in probe.”

Meanwhile, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of instigating and politicising farmers' stir in Madhya Pradesh and termed Rahul Gandhi's visit to the violence-hit Mandsaur as “another photo opportunity”.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Naidu also dismissed the Congress' demand that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should step down from his post in view of the deaths of five protesting farmers in police firing.

The minister described Chouhan as the most farmer-friendly chief minister and listed welfare measures taken by the BJP-led Centre and state government.

Contingents of Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed in Madhya Pradesh's violence- hit Mandsaur district on Thursday where the situation remained tense. According to the police, 2 companies of RAF, comprising around 100 men each, have moved into Pipliamandi in Mandsaur, the site of Tuesday's shooting of five farmers.

The situation is tense but under control, police said.