Farmers’ protest: A confrontation surfaces between farmers and police on fourth day

Ahead of the parliamentary polls, new development has surfaced as peasants’ agitation backed by several farmer unions seeking the fulfillment of their demands. In this row, a fresh confrontation comes to the fore between the agitating farmers and the police at Shambhu border. In a bid to stop the farmers moving towards the barricades and trying to enter Haryana, the police on Friday fired tear gas shells to disperse the agitating farmers demanding a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price for crops.

Many protesting farmers have suffered injuries due to shells exploding on their bodies. Sub-inspector Hiralal of GRP posted in Ambala lost his lives due because of the suffocation due to tear gas shells. Apart from this, a farmer, 65 from Chacheki village in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, who was at the Shambhu border along with thousands of other farmers died early Friday morning after he suffered a heart attack. Gyan Singh was sleeping in a trolley along with five other farmers about a kilometer away from the Shambhu barrier site when he reported feeling uneasy at around 3 am.

It is noteworthy that the ongoing protest is spearheaded by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, who were not prominent faces in the previous farmers’ protest held in 2020 and the current protest differs from the previous protests in terms of demands and the farmers’ organisations involved in the protest. Notably, an FIR has been lodged by the Jind police against 6 farmers, including the national president of Bharatiya Kisan Naujawan Union, Abhimanyu Kohar, for clashing with the police and attacking with a sharp weapon at the Datasinghwala border of Haryana-Punjab (Khanauri border for Punjab).

In continuation to aforesaid, it is pertinent to mention that Samyukt Kisan Morcha and Labor Union had called Gramin Bharat Bandh along with a call for toll free Haryana for three hours from 12 PM to 3 PM on February 16 and Markets reported closed in Haryana and Punjab. According to sources, the government proposed to form a committee to make a law on MSP, which would have representatives from both sides including farmers and the government. Farmer leaders remained adamant on MSP guarantee. Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda, Nityanand Rai along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann were also present in the meeting. Now the meeting will be held again on Sunday 18 February at 6 pm.