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Tension prevails at Shambhu, Khanauri after farmer’s death
Tension prevailed at both Shambhu and Khanauri borders with Punjab as Haryana Police lobbed tear-gas shells to disperse protesters when they tried to move towards the barricades, stalling their protest march to Delhi on Wednesday
Shambhu/Rohtak; Tension prevailed at both Shambhu and Khanauri borders with Punjab as Haryana Police lobbed tear-gas shells to disperse protesters when they tried to move towards the barricades, stalling their protest march to Delhi on Wednesday.
Scores of farmers remain camped at Khanauri and Shambhu with their tractor-trailers and trucks agitating for their demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops and farm debt waiver.
A 21-year-old protester, Shubh Karan Singh, died during a clash with Haryana Police at Khanauri, while more than 60 farmers sustained injuries at Shambhu and Jind borders.
The protesting farmers failed to break barricades at both the border points as Haryana Police kept on firing tear-gas shells on regular intervals.
Heavy earthmoving equipment, including excavators, and modified tractors were seen at the protest sites, and police had cautioned that these might be used to break barricades and cause harm to security personnel. Many protesting farmers were seen wearing masks and glasses to protect themselves from tear gas. Drones were used by police to keep an eye on the activities of the farmers on the other side of the barricades and drop tear-gas shells.
According to hospital records, over two-dozen farmers were injured at the Shambhu barrier and 40 at Khanauri in the police action.
Medical superintendent, Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala Dr HS Rekhi said: “A farmer, identified as Shubh Karan Singh, was declared brought dead at the hospital. He had a head injury possibly due to a bullet.”
Doctors at Rajindra hospital said the postmortem would be conducted on Thursday to ascertain the kind of bullet that hit the protester.
At Khanouri, the rapid action force and Haryana Police personnel fired tear-gas shells and rubber bullets and used water cannons on protesters to deter them from entering the Haryana territory.
Jind superintendent of police Sumit Kumar said: “The protesters threw chilli powder mixed with straw at cops. They also attacked the forces with sharp-edged weapons. At least 12 police personnel sustained injuries. Some of them were given first-aid and those with serious injuries were rushed to nearby hospitals in Jind.”
Farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Swaran Singh Pandher, who are spearheading the “Delhi Chalo” protest under the banner of SKM (Non-Political) faced backlash from young protesters over the lack of clarity about the next action.
The union leaders had given a call to resume the “Delhi Chalo” march at 11am on Wednesday, but they started holding a meeting to chalk out their future course of action, said some perturbed farmers, who were of the view that the leaders should either ask protesters to move to the national capital or send them back home. Following this, farmer leaders had to curtail their meeting and pacify the protesters.
Dallewal, who president of the BKU (Ekta Sidhupur), said: “We don’t want more youngsters to die in police action. Issues will be resolved through talks.”
Earlier in the day, agriculture minister Arjun Munda, who is among the Union ministers engaging with the farmer leaders, called for further talks and appealed to the protesters to maintain peace.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Kisan Naujawan Union convener Abhimanyu Kohar, who was among the farmer leaders leading the protest at Khanauri, alleged at least 100 farmers have been injured, four of them seriously, in the police action.
“The seriously injured were rushed to hospitals in Sangrur and Patiala. The rapid action force jawans entered Punjab territory and they thrashed elderly farmers sitting on tractor-trailers. Nearly 15 tractor-trailers were also damaged. They also picked up 14-15 farmers and we have no information about their whereabouts,” he alleged.
Haryana Police, however, denied reports of abduction of a farmer, identified as Preet of Nawa Gao village in Sangrur farmer Preet. He is undergoing treatment at Rohtak’s PGIMS, the police said.
PGIMS director Dr SS Lohchab confirmed that the farmer is undergoing treatment at a trauma centre and he is stable. He refused to share more details.
A senior doctor at the PGIMS said that the Sangrur farmer did not receive bullet injuries.
During the last round of talks, which ended past midnight Sunday, the panel of three Union ministers -- Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityananad Rai -- had proposed buying five crops -- moong dal, urad dal, tur dal, maize and cotton -- from farmers at MSP for five years through central agencies. However, the farmer union leaders rejected the proposal and decided to march to the national capital on February 21.
