Taking note of photos of February 21 protests at Shambhu and Khanauri borders, shown by the Haryana government, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday criticised farmers’ unions for using children and women as “a shield”.
“The claim of counsels espousing the cause of farmers also after perusing the photographs which are taken on record can be seriously doubted. It is a sad state of affairs that children who should be studying in schools are being taught and are being exposed to violence when they are not supposed to be. Young minds being exposed to violent acts would lead to have a damaging effect on the psychology of such children and apart from that the threat of being injured on account of stone pelting which was taking place in the apparent riot-like situation,” the bench of acting chief justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Lapita Banerji observed after seeing the photographs of protests supplied by the Haryana government.
“...(photos) rather go on to show that apart from the younger elements which were armed with lathis and at certain places with swords and spears and sharp-edged weapons, they were also accompanied by women and unfortunately even children were paraded in the front,” it added.
{{/usCountry}}“...(photos) rather go on to show that apart from the younger elements which were armed with lathis and at certain places with swords and spears and sharp-edged weapons, they were also accompanied by women and unfortunately even children were paraded in the front,” it added.
{{/usCountry}}The court was hearing a clutch of petitions on farmers’ protest over legal guarantee of MSP and violence reported on February 21 at Shambhu and Khanauri borders.
As per Haryana, in the ongoing agitation, 67 personnel, both from police and para-military forces, at two different sites have sustained injuries which “substantiates” the violent nature of the agitation.
As many as 40 persons sustained injuries at Khanauri and 27 sustained injuries at Shambhu border, the government has told the court adding that 19 police and para-military personnel, including senior officials, got injured in the clash reported on February 13 at Khanauri border, when farmers had arrived from Punjab.
As per the government, farmer leader Abhimanyu Kuhad among other farmer leaders have been booked for two incidents — one of giving provoking speeches to agitators on February 14 and second of February 21, when agitators started burning stubble by putting chilly powder causing intense breathing problems to security personnel and subsequently pelting stones, using swords, lathis with iron nails and spears etc. against the police personnel. It was this incident where death of farmer Shubh Karan Singh also took place.
As of Shambhu border, the government has said, on February 13, an attempt was made to cross Ghaggar River and protesters tried to cause damage to the barricades and CCTV cameras due to which force had to be used in the form of lathi-charge, water cannons, tear gas/stun shells etc. On February 21, the agitators tried to break police barricades by crossing the Ghaggar through the adjoining fields and pelted stones and attacked the deployed force. As many as four police personnel got injured in the incident, the court has been told adding that an FIR has been registered for the incident.