Road opens after Punjab crackdown on farmers
Punjab Police reopened National Highway 44 after 13 months, clearing protest sites, amid political backlash and calls for farmers to address issues with the Centre.
The Punjab Police on Thursday opened the arterial National Highway 44 and allowed traffic to flow through the interstate border with Haryana for the first time in 13 months, a day after it detained hundreds of farm leaders and demolished protest sites to dismantle the agitation.
Authorities said that part of the stretch between Ambala and Rajpura on the of the key highway – it connects Srinagar to Kanyakumari — that was closed since February 10, 2024 was opened for traffic at6.30pmafter police cleared the Shambhu protest site. At the Khanauri protest site, where agitators blocked Shambhu barrier at Pubjab and Haryana interstate border, police said traffic is likely to resume by Friday evening.
“The highway has been cleared by Punjab Police. Traffic movement has already set off. Our teams will stay stationed at the Shambhu barrier to keep the site safe and ensure a smooth flow of the traffic,” said Patiala range deputy inspector general of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu.
The developments came even as a political controversy raged over the surprise dismantling of the protest site, with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hitting out at the state government, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reaffirming its support to farmers, but emphasising the need to protect the state’s economy.
Commuters, meanwhile, said they were relieved due to the development. “We are travelling from Ludhiana to Karnal and we will take less time now that the blockade has lifted,” said a commuter riding a two-wheeler, asking not to be named.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh, in an official statement, said the party has always stood by farmers, recalling how the party opposed the now-repealed farm laws and how he was suspended from Parliament for raising farmers’ concerns.However, he also stressed that indefinite road blockades were not a viable solution.
“The central government alone has the power to guarantee MSP. If it wants, it can resolve this issue within an hour,” he said, urging farmers to take their demands directly to the Centre rather than disrupting normal life in Punjab.
Patiala Range DIG Mandeep Singh Sidhu said: “The highway has been cleared by police. Traffic movement has already started. Our teams will stay stationed at the Shambhu barrier to keep the site safe and ensure a smooth flow of the traffic.”
On Wednesday, police detained several Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who began his indefinite hunger strike on November 26, 2024 at the Khanauri border demanding legal guarantee for minimum support price and an across-the-board debt waiver for farmers.
The farm leaders were detained in Mohali while they were headed to the Shambhu protest site after the meeting with the delegation led by Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The talks – the seventh since February – ended in a deadlock, with the next meeting scheduled for May 4. Hours later, bulldozers rolled on to the Shambhu (Shambhu-Ambala) and Khanauri (Sangrur-Jind) borders where hundreds of cultivators set up protest sites since last February.
On Thursday, around 100 farmers, including Pander, were sent to judicial custody. Dallewal, who was brought to PIMS Jalandhar at night, has been shifted to a PWD guest house in the Jalandhar Cantonment area amid tight security.
Over 100 tractor trolleys parked there were removed within hours to clear the site, even as Haryana removed the concrete barricades that were erected to halt the farmers’ march to Delhi last year.
The Punjab Police moved tractors and trolleys and demolished makeshift houses on the national highway with earthmovers. At Khanauri, there were more than 500 trolleys and 200 tractors parked on the road.
“It was a tough task as the majority of the tractor of farmers, which were parked at the Khanauri site, were either sans fuel or punctured. Besides, many trolleys did not have a towing hook – which delayed the process of clearing the highway. Our police personnel have continuously been working so as to clear the highway at the earliest,” said Sidhu.
Around 600 farm protesters were taken into preventive detention across seven districts of the southwest region of Punjab when they tried to block roads and surround the district administrative complexes on Thursday. Police officers said that at most places in the region, the detainees were from the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) and Krantikari Kisan Union.
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.
Farmers, under the banner of the SKM (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, were camping at the Shambhu and the Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press for their demands.
The political controversy over the dismantling of the protest sites continued to rock the state.
Calling police action a “cowardly act” of the state government, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the chief minister betrayed the farmers. “Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has back-stabbed the entire farming community of Punjab. Punjabis will never forget this and will never forgive him for this shameful act,” he said.
BJP leader and Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu alleged that the AAP government in Punjab was trying to “sabotage” talks between the Centre and farmers. “The central government is serious about the farmer’s issues and the sudden action of the Punjab government is aimed at sabotaging the talks. Arvind Kejriwal who is camping in Punjab for the last three days has hatched a conspiracy against farmers,” he said.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, too, condemned the police action and demanded the release of farmers. “The AAP government has also gone back on its commitment to engage with the farmers to find a resolution to their grievances. I appeal to Akali workers to fight this suppression and stand in solidarity with the Annadaata,” he said in a statement.
Punjab cabinet minister, Laljit Singh Bhullar reiterated the AAP government’s “strong support for farmers” while urging them to take their grievances to Delhi instead of blocking highways within Punjab. “Such disruptions severely impact the state’s economy and overall development,” Bhullar said.
Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the farmers should stage a protest in Delhi as their demands are against the central government. “The AAP government and the people of Punjab stood with the farmers when they protested against the three black laws. The demands of the farmers are against the Centre. It has been more than a year and the Shambhu and Khanauri borders are closed. The traders, youths of Punjab are very upset. When the traders will do business, the youth will get employment and they will stay away from drugs,” Cheema said.
