Protesting farmers on Friday suspended their foot march to Delhi for the day after a few of them suffered injuries due to teargas shells lobbed by security personnel, according to Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher.
Six protesters were injured on Friday after the Haryana Police and paramilitary forces lobbed tear gas shells at agitating farmers at the Shambhu border. Tear gas shells were fired by the security personnel after the protesters were heading towards barricades at the border.
The development comes after these protesting farmers on the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march were stopped at the Shambhu border as police officials claimed that the framers did not have any permission to enter Haryana.
Earlier, a group of 100 farmers, named ‘Marjeevda Jatha’, began its foot march to Delhi from their protest site at the Shambhu border, but was stopped a few meters away by a multilayered barricading.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher who was also stopped at the border said that either they (farmers) should be allowed to go to Delhi peacefully or their demands should be talked about.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police have tightened security at borders ahead of the farmers’ march to the National Capital. The farmers are marching to force the Centre for a legal guarantee for minimum support price for crops.
A heavy deployment of security personnel has been made on the Haryana side of the border where a huge number of farmers have assembled. A rope has been placed near the border on the Haryana side by farmers and only the ‘Marjeevda Jatha’ will be allowed to cross over to the other side, said farmer leader Tejveer Singh.
It is the third such attempt to enter the Haryana side after 10 months. The farmers’ protest started on February 13 and entered 297th day on Saturday. Earlier, two attempts were made to enter Haryana on February 13 and February 21.
The ‘Dilli Chalo’ march is part of the ongoing efforts of the SKM (Non-political) to press for their demands, including legal guarantee for MSP, farm loan waiver and agricultural reforms.
Earlier in the day amid the protest, orders were passed by the government of Haryana to shutdown internet services in the ten villages of Ambala from December 6 to December 9 under Section 20 of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, as per an official release by the Government of Haryana. However, banking and mobile recharge services would be still functional, the release mentioned.