New Delhi: A fresh jattha (batch) of 101 protesting farmers resumed their Delhi Chalo march from the Shambhu area of the Punjab-Haryana border on Sunday only to suspend it shortly before evening as the Haryana security personnel fired teargas shells to disperse them, which resulted in injuries to the protesters.
Announcing the decision to suspend the foot march for the day, farmer leaders said they will decide the next course of action on Monday.
As the protesting farmers resumed their foot march, they were halted by a multilayered barricade set up by security personnel who surprised the protesters by offering them tea and biscuits and also showering them with flower petals.
The protesters, however, claimed it was all a "drama" as the police soon lobbed teargas shells and used water jets to disperse them when they insisted on crossing the Shambhu border. The protesters, dubbed as 'marjeevras' (someone willing to die for a cause), were stopped only a few meters into the march. The standoff continued for over three hours, following which it was called off for the day.
Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher in the evening said six farmers were injured. One of them was rushed to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.
Pandher said their protest completed 300 days on Sunday. The next course of action will be decided in a meeting of their forums — the Samyuka Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha — on Monday.
"We have called back the jattha. Whatever happened today was seen by the whole country," said Pandher as he slammed the use of teargas against farmers.
“The administration used tactics...immediately after showering flowers, they fired teargas shells and rubber bullets at farmers,” he claimed.
Pandher claimed that mediapersons were stopped by the Punjab police from reaching the protest site as their Haryana counterparts had asked them to keep the media at least 1 km away from the protest site.
Another farmers' leader, Baldev Singh Zira, said farmers were moving ahead in a peaceful manner and they were not carrying any weapon and criticised the security personnel for using teargas against them.
Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, meanwhile, continued with his fast unto death at the Khanauri border, which entered the 13th day on Sunday. While in Greater Noida, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), in a statement, said, "Farmers who are currently imprisoned in the district jail of Gautam Buddha Nagar have gone on a hunger strike to defend their rights and interests."
Ambala police had earlier said the farmer outfits can march to Delhi only after getting permission from the national capital administration. The protesting farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, pressing for a legal guarantee for minimum support price and other demands.
