The peaceful agitation of farmers for proper compensation at the upcoming thermal power plant of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) in Bihar’s Buxar district turned violent on Wednesday after police allegedly barged into their homes on Tuesday night and thrashed them.

Farmers from all the surrounding villages that have been affected by the SJVN project clashed with the police near the thermal power plant site at Chausa, leaving at least nine police personnel injured and several vehicles damaged.

The construction work at the plant site has come to a standstill. The police resorted to a lathi-charge and firing in the air and chased away the angry protesters. They were in the process of registering an FIR against the farmers.

“A large number of police personnel came to my village Banarpur at night. They climbed onto the terrace, broke a door and entered my house. They were looking for me, but I managed to escape. They brutally thrashed everybody, not sparing even women and children. They took away my son, grandson and a relative with them. We do not know their whereabouts,” Narendra Tiwari, a member of the farmers’ front, told The Telegraph.

“The situation is under control,” Buxar superintendent of police Manish Kumar said.

Asked about the police entering the houses of farmers in the middle of the night, Manish said that they had gone to Banarpur village for a raid when they were attacked.