Farmer leaders under house arrest in Punjab’s Doaba

Some taken into police custody after early morning raids on residences to thwart SKM call for week-long protest in Chandigarh from March 5.

Amid the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) call for a ‘pucca morcha (week-long protest)’ in the state capital of Chandigarh from March 5, Punjab Police raided houses of farm union leaders in the Doaba region, including Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts, and put them under house arrest.

In a bid to thwart the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s ‘pucca morcha (week-long protest)’ in the state capital of Chandigarh from March 5, Punjab Police raided houses of farm union leaders and detained several of them. (HT file photo)

Police personnel barged into the houses of farm union leaders and conducted a thorough search before detaining a few of them, besides putting several leaders and workers under house arrest. The leaders and their workers posted CCTV footages of the police action on social media.

The police whisked away senior SKM leader and head of the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee Jangvir Singh Chauhan from his house at Tanda in Hoshiarpur around 4am.

BKU (Doaba) Jalandhar district president Manjit Singh Rai said he along with eight other leaders have been put under house arrest.

“One of our leaders, Santokh Singh, was arrested following the police action. This is muzzling the voice of farmers, who are fighting for a genuine cause,” Rai said.

He said that many of the key leaders were still to be contacted as they had gone underground following apprehension of such police action after Monday night’s inconclusive meeting with the chief minister.