Chandigarh: Throngs of farmers from Punjab trying to force their entry into Haryana clashed with the police amid the rain of teargas shells at the Shambhu barrier on Ambala-Patiala border sealed by Haryana police to thwart the farmers' "Delhi Chalo" march from moving towards the national capital, on Tuesday.
This confrontation was anticipated after the second round of the talks between the farmers unions and the Union ministers over the former’s demands, including MSP for their crops, had failed here on Monday.
Aside from Shambhu barrier which is on the GT road (national highway No 44), confrontation between the Punjab farmers and police was also witnessed at the Khanauri border which is on national highway No 52, joining Sangrur district (Punjab) and the Jind district of Haryana. According to reports, tension was also mounting on the borders of two states at Kaithal, Sirsa and Jhajjar, though no clashes were reported from there till filing this report.
The Shambhu border appeared to be the epicentre of the high voltage confrontation with the police countering repeated attempts of swarms of farmers to enter Haryana.
It was at the Shambhu border where groups of young farmers not only made repeated attempts to uproot the cement and iron barricades, but also succeeded in removing a couple of them, physically and throwing them into the seasonal ghaggar river. Here, they could also be seen pelting stones at the drones while these dropped teargas shells.
According to reports reaching here, more than a dozen people including two journalists, a police personnel and several farmers were hurt in the action at the two borders.
Farmers Came 'Prepared'
The Haryana authorities’ steps to thwart them notwithstanding, the protesting farmers had apparently come prepared this time to counter police action. In a surprise move, while the police used drones to drop teargas shells on the "marked" groups of the farmers to have a wider impact to thwart them, the farmers on the other hand, could be seen with their faces covered with wet clothes and in many cases with headgears equipped with masks to decimate the teargas’ impact.
So much so, they carried water tankers along so as to repeatedly keep the cloth wet to cover and cleanse their face to mitigate the adverse effect of the teargas on eyes and face.
Meanwhile, in what came as a surprise for the Haryana authorities, some groups of Haryana farmers had also thronged in Ambala, Jind and Sirsa area in support of their Punjab counterparts though were thwarted by the police.
HC For Protest At Designated Area:
Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court which was hearing a plea against the suspension of internet services in Haryana and sealing of state borders in view of the farmers’ march, on Tuesday suggested that the states should identify a designated area for the protesters. The high court issued notices asking the Punjab, Haryana and Union government for a status report and favoured resolving the dispute by urging the parties involved to sit down and solve the problem. The next hearing is on February 15.
