After reports and videos on social media suggested that the nails erected on the road at Ghazipur (Delhi-Uttar Pradesh) border were being removed, police on Thursday clarified that they were just repositioning them, ANI reported.

“These [nails] are just being repositioned,” Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar told the news agency. “Measures taken in view of law and order situation remain.”

Earlier on Thursday, ANI tweeted a video, suggesting that the nails, that were put up as part of erecting a barricade to stop farmers from entering the Capital, were being removed.

The Delhi Police has put up elaborate arrangements – digging ditches, erecting concrete barricades and spreading razor wires across main roads at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur borders of the Capital, where farmers are protesting against the new agriculture laws. Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava had said on Tuesday that the barricades were being strengthened, to avoid a repeat of the violence by a section of the protestors during their tractor rally on January 26.

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The home ministry has also ordered a shutdown of internet services in the three border areas since Saturday. The Haryana government on Wednesday lifted the internet blockade imposed in Panipat and Charkhi Dadri, but the ban will continue in five other districts of the state till 5 pm on February 4.

The moves were widely criticised by the Opposition, pointing out that they were akin to “waging war” against the farmers.

The three areas on the fringes of the Capital have become the epicentre of farmer protests against the new agricultural laws. Thousands of farmers have continued to camp in these protest sites for over two months, demanding that the Centre repeal the legislations that they say will benefit private buyers at their expense. But things changed following the violence by a section of the farmers on January 26, during which some of the protestors participating in the tractor rally, stormed into the Red Fort in Delhi. One protestor was killed and over 300 police officers were injured as farmers broke through barricades and poured into the city, clashing with the police that tried to push them back with tear gas and a baton charge.