Punjab: Traffic resumes at Shambhu after 1 year, over 1,000 detained amid statewide stir
Police: Khanauri border to be cleared today; protesters cane-charged near Gidderbaha; need to reopen roads to protect state’s economy, says AAP
With the police detaining over a thousand farmers and removing the temporary structures at the Shambhu border, the traffic on the National Highway-44 (NH44) resumed after more than a year on Thursday. At Khanauri, Haryana officials removed the cemented barricades while Punjab cops were busy doing the same, claiming that this point of the Sangrur-Jind road would be opened by Friday evening.
Both highways were blocked by farmers on February 13 last year after their march to Delhi was blocked by security forces at Shambhu and Khanauri border points. Their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest has been centered around multiple demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops. The protesting farmers lashed out at the AAP government for detaining their leaders and removing the protesters.
The Punjab Police had on Wednesday detained farmer leaders Sarvan Singh Pander of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Jagjit Singh Dallewal of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) when they were on their way back from Chandigarh to Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites following talks with Union agriculture minister Shivraj Chouhan that ended in a deadlock. The next round of talks is slated for May 4.
Earlier in the day, Punjab Police, besides detaining protesters across the state, resumed dismantling the remaining part of the structures at Shambhu and Khanauri. Trolleys were shifted to nearby barren land from where farmers can take them later by showing identity proofs.
As many as 287 arrested farmers, including Sarwan Singh Pandher, at Shambhu and Khanauri have been sent to judicial custody. As many as 113 were sent to Patiala Central Jail, 150 to Nabha Central Jail and 24 to Mansa jail.
Patiala range DIG Mandeep Singh Sidhu said over 500 tractors and vehicles were there at Khanauri which were being removed. In two days, 572 farmers were detained from Khanauri out of whom over 260 have been released.
Narwana (Haryana) DSP Amit Bhatia said both lanes of the road were cleared in Haryana territory near Khanauri.
In Sangrur, over 100 activists of Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Azad), including president Jaswinder Singh Longowal, were detained to prevent a protest outside the deputy commissioner’s office. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of BKU-Ekta Ugrahan, flayed CM Bhagwant Mann, claiming that the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) would proceed with its plan regarding a protest on March 26. Former Sangrur MP Simranjit Singh Mann, too, condemned the police action.
Haryana’s Jind-based farmer leader Azad Palwa said Punjab took advantage of the divided unions to crush the agitation.
In Amritsar, several farmers were detained when they marched towards the DC office. In Tarn Taran, hundreds of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) members gathered on Amritsar-Bathinda highway and staged a protest. They were later removed. The KMSC stated the protest was launched across the state against farmers’ arrests. KMSC leaders alleged that the roads (Shambhu and Khanauri) had been blocked by the central and Haryana governments.
SKM (Non Political) leader Baldev Singh Sirsa too was detained a day after he announced fast-unto-death.
600 detained in 7 Malwa districts, clash with cops
Over 600 activists, mostly from Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) and Krantikari Kisan Union, were detained as they tried to block roads and gherao administrative complexes, police said.
Ferozepur range DIG Swapan Sharma said the protesters were informed that there had been instructions not to disrupt the public transport or public offices. “The appeal was accepted by most. We took about 280 persons in preventive custody,” he said.
A group, including women, clashed with cops when prevented from marching towards the Moga DC office. BKU (Ekta-Sidhupur) activists raised slogans against the AAP government and demanded immediate release of Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarvan Singh Pandher.
On the Bathinda-Sriganganagar highway near Gidderbaha in Muktsar, a group from the Sidhupur faction of the BKU tried to block traffic, forcing police to resort to mild cane-charge and detain several of them.
Bathinda range DIG Harjeet Singh said nearly 270 protesters were detained in Bathinda and Mansa districts. No one sustained injury, he added.
Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, state general secretary of the BKU’s Ekta Ugrahan faction, said effigies of the Punjab government were burnt at 26 sites in 16 districts. “The protest was against CM Bhagwant Mann who is working in collusion with PM Narendra Modi to suppress the demands of the agrarian community,” he said.
In Delhi, AAP issued a statement, reaffirming its support to farmers but emphasised the urgent need to reopen key roads to protect Punjab’s economy. (With inputs from Surjit Singh, Muskan)
