Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
Haryana security personnel lobbed teargas shells to disperse protesting farmers as they neared multi-layered barricades at the Shambhu border point between the state and neighbouring Punjab on Sunday.
The teargas shells forced the farmers, some of whom had covered their faces and were wearing protective eyewear, to get back a few metres. Some were seen covering the shells with wet jute bags.
A group of 101 farmers resumed their foot march to Delhi from the Shambhu border, where they had been camping since their first attempt to march to the capital was foiled in February, to press their various demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP).
After walking for a few metres, the protesters ran into heavy barricading by Haryana Police.
Police asked them to show if they had the permission to march to Delhi.
Cops have cast doubt on the identity of some of the protesters and said they will be allowed to proceed only after verification. "We have a list of the names of 101 farmers and they are not those people. They are not letting us identify them - they are moving ahead as a mob," a Haryana police official told ANI.
A protesting farmer, however, said that the cops have a wrong list of names. "Their list doesn't have the names of farmers coming here. We have asked them (the police) to let us move ahead and we will show them our identity cards. But the police are saying that we don't have the permission to move ahead," the farmer said.
Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher, while announcing the resumption of the march, had yesterday denied receiving any message from the government for talks. "The government is in no mood to hold talks," he said while addressing the media.
The farmers suspended their march to Delhi on Friday after some of them suffered injuries when security personnel fired teargas shells.
Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers have been demanding that the Centre initiate talks with them to address their issues.
The Haryana Police had earlier asked the farmers to not enter the state from Punjab citing a prohibitory order clamped by the Ambala administration under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
The group of farmers have demanded that they be allowed to move to Delhi for talks with the Centre over their demands. The police claimed the group created a ruckus.
Shortly before the farmers' march on Friday, the Haryana government suspended mobile internet and bulk SMS service in 11 villages of the Ambala district till December 9.
The farmers had earlier attempted to march towards Delhi on February 13 and February 21 but were stopped by security forces deployed at the border points.
