Farmers’ protest: Trenches were dug near the border between Haryana and Delhi.
Highlight
- Haryana police dug trenches at various points near the state border
- They also used trucks and barbed wire barricades to detain farmers.
- Farmers have shown the same determination to keep going
New Delhi / Chandigarh:
To block thousands of protesting farmers heading towards Delhi, Haryana used a common military tactic: digging trenches near the state border. The images showed excavated roadsides and heavy trucks and barbed wire barricades on the border roads as a firm barrier for farmers marching into the capital.
The trenches reflected the determination of the police in Haryana, ruled by the BJP, to detain farmers, protesting against three laws passed by the central government in September. The police have also used trucks loaded with sand and barricades wrapped in barbed wire.
Farmers have shown the same determination to keep going. Yesterday, a large group of farmers, facing tear gas and jets of water, advanced, threw bricks and stones at the police and forced them to retreat. As the police parked vehicles to block the bridge, the farmers physically pushed them. After a two-hour confrontation, hundreds of farmers cleared the bridge and advanced, crossing into Haryana.
Later that day, the footage showed trenches dug by the police along the routes that farmers trying to reach Delhi would take.
“The idea is to delay the movement of farmers from Punjab so that they do not reach Karnal,” an official said Thursday. Similar blockades were placed near Kurukshetra.
Some states last used trenches like these to prevent interstate movement of migrants during the coronavirus shutdown.
A video that was widely circulated showed roads dug up on the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border. There were also reports of such measures in Tamil Nadu.
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