The farmers clashed with the Haryana police at the border crossings.
Chandigarh:
Punjab farmers marching to Delhi to protest the center’s new agricultural laws first attacked Haryana police, who acted with “great restraint”, state police chief Manoj Yadava said on Thursday after a clash of a day between the two sides at the border crossings. .
“Many of our vehicles were damaged by farmers. We tried to convince them to stop their march. We did not use any force against farmers,” Yadava said, adding that the police will continue their efforts to prevent farmers from reaching Delhi.
“We handle the situation with great restraint ensuring that law and order are maintained,” he told the PTI news agency.
When asked about the use of water cannons and tear gas against farmers, he said that farmers who entered Haryana from Punjab broke through police barricades at many points.
“We are taking all necessary measures to ensure that law and order are maintained. We are doing our duty,” the police chief said.
Punjab farmers faced water cannons and broke through police barriers on the state’s border with Haryana as they advanced to the national capital in protest against the center’s agricultural laws.
Late at night, large numbers of protesters from Punjab and Haryana were near Delhi, where policemen were also stationed at border points.
At the Punjab-Haryana border in Shambhu, police and farmers in their tractor cars clashed for hours in the morning. Police made megaphone announcements calling on the farmers gathered on the Punjab side to disperse.
But when protesters tried to break through barricades and threw stones, Haryana police used water cannons and tear gas projectiles. The farmers threw steel barricades into the Ghaggar River from the bridge where they had been detained.
Governed by the BJP, which also rules in the center, Haryana has been using heavy force to try to block farmers heading from Punjab to the capital by tractors and on foot for their two-day “Delhi Chalo” protest march against the new laws that they fear will cut their profits and give large retailers more power.
(With PTI inputs)
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