CHANDIGARH / NEW DELHI: They were hit by water cannons and tear gas. Iron barricades, concrete barriers, piles of sandbags, even trucks with flat tires, were placed in their way in Haryana as police detained several of their leaders. But thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana on Thursday overcame the power of the government machine with iron determination, held back but determined to arrive in Delhi to protest against the Center’s new agricultural laws.
The Kisan Sangharsh All-India Coordinating Committee claimed that despite the Haryana government’s attempts to stop them, more than 50,000 farmers would arrive in Delhi in their tractor cars on Friday. The numbers could even rise as more farmers are expected to approach Delhi on Thursday night.
the national capital as a result, it will remain heavily entrenched on Friday as Delhi police prepare for waves of protesters to reach the borders. Despite the fortifications, which include barbed wire barricades and a series of pre-trial arrests, such as that of Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav and 26 farmer leaders in Gurgaon, some protesters managed to enter the capital on Thursday, responding to the protests. two days of ‘Dilli Call from Chalo. Delhi police arrested about 100 protesters. In Greater Noida, UP police detained 50 farmers heading to Delhi to join the unrest.
Sonipat, one of the main routes into the capital from Haryana for protesters, was heavily fortified, particularly the stretch from Haldana border to the Kundli border, touching Panipat and Delhi, respectively. The district administration dug the road in the middle and laid bricks to support the iron barricades. With police also being heavily deployed on NH-44, there were long growls and chaos as the travelers faced extreme hardship. Many travelers were seen on their way from Delhi to Panipat walking on foot to cover the 20 km stretch between the Kundli border and the Haldana border after police stopped traffic.
The border restrictions also had a crippling effect on traffic from Gurgaon to Delhi on the highway. Traffic jams on the Delhi-bound lanes accumulated throughout the day, and in the late afternoon, the grunting lasted almost 4 km, beyond Shankar Chowk (Cyber City), forcing the police to relax controls for a while to clear congestion. Vishal Kishan, a Gurgaon resident traveling to Cantonment of Delhi, told TOI that he was stuck at the border for a couple of hours. “I was not aware of the traffic situation and I ended up taking the usual route,” he lamented. All border points were also heavily entrenched in Gurgaon.
In Haryana, where the BJP government had deployed thousands of police at the borders and on the roads to control the march of Punjab farmers marching on foot or by tractor-trailer, there were skirmishes between the police and marching protesters in Shambhu in National. Highway (NH) 44, Sadopur on NH-152 and at Teokar on the Patiala-Pehowa highway in the Kurukshetra district.
It was a confrontation in AmbalaHowever, that became one of the talking points of the day when Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel fired several tear gas projectiles at the farmers who had broken through the barricades at short intervals and blocked them on the bridge. Ghaggar. Some of the protesters threw the shells at RAF personnel and launched some police barricades on the Ghaggar River. In Shambhu, protesters threw stones at Haryana policemen.
On the NH-44, thousands of farmers from Haryana, led by the head of the Bharatiya Kisan (Charuni) Union, Gurnam Singh Charuni, broke through the barricades set up by the Karnal police. Once again, the police responded with water cannons and tear gas, but could not prevent the farmers from advancing. The Charuni group will stay at the Panipat toll plaza overnight before leaving for Delhi. “We will head towards Delhi on Friday morning. All the farmers have gathered at the toll plaza and we have complete arrangements for food. ” Harpal Singh Sudhal, general secretary of BKU (Charuni), said.
A group of Punjab farmers also broke through the barricades at Lake Karnal and was expected to join the Charuni group at the Panipat toll plaza. Police chiefs in many Haryana districts said farmers will be booked for breaking barricades.
“What the Haryana police did was totally undemocratic,” said BKU Rajewal President Balvir Singh Rajewal. “We cross from Shambu and march towards Delhi and we will stay in Panipat. We are citizens of the country and farmers have the right to come to Delhi and protest in a democratic country, he added, criticizing the “police atrocity” of “using water cannons and tear gas projectiles against a large number of farmers.”
At the Patran-Gulah Cheeka border, Haryana police were charged with throwing stones, in addition to using water cannons and tear gas projectiles. The stones reportedly hit some protesting farmers and one of them suffered a serious head injury. The injured farmer received first aid from a medical team brought in by former Patiala MP, Dr. Dharamvira Gandhi, to help the farmers.
Also in Moonak there were reports of skirmishes. “There was a small fight with the police during an attempt to break through the police barricades. However, we managed to get into Haryana with our tractor cars and we are marching towards Delhi, ”said BKU Sidhupur Faridkot President Bohar Singh. BKU Ugrahan, which protested at the Dabwali and Khanouri border points on Thursday, will break through the barricades on Friday. They quietly protested at these points on Thursday.
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